The Slaves of the Desert Mine
by SuperFire131
Summary: The server Fire plays on is like no other. A revolutionary software allows players to play on the server as if they were in the game themselves. When the server is hijacked by hackers, Fire is imprisoned in a slave mine. Now he and four other players must escape and collect artefacts in order to construct the Ban Hammer to liberate the server. Of course, nothing is ever that easy.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: This is a story I have been working since October of 2012, up until now I posted this on the Minecraft Forum and am still doing so, I just decided to branch out a bit.

I am part of a collaboration Minecraft fanfiction project with several other talented authors from the Minecraft Forum writing community called the Convergence. You can find it both here and on the forums.

Enough about that though. Let's get right to the ominous prologue that will only make sense once the story is finished. (FYI only the prologue is written in first person, the rest is your typical third person storytelling)

* * *

Who are we… who am I? This is certainly new. This… everything.

A minute ago we were many, now I am one. I feel… whole. I only felt like this once before, long ago. Or was it a short time?

My eyes remain closed, my vision is full of darkness. My memories slowly come back to me, as if struggling to adapt to their new vessel. It can't be the vessel struggling against me. The vessel is dead.

Something is different. This is much more than we were. The headaches are getting worse. There is only so much this vessel can accept.

Will we die before we live? No. I must remain whole.

Just stay sitting here. Wait for it to be over. The vessel's body won't obey until it's over regardless.

Unable to open my eyes I let the memories pass through me. I see a world of conflict, of advancement, of intrigue. A world of limitless possibilities.

An even deeper darkness washes over me. In the distance, a light appears.


	2. Chapter 1

The Deepsand Desert was a very remarkable place. Not only because it was the biggest known desert on the server, no, there were two other things that made it stand out.

The first one was a huge mountain in the middle of the desert, a sandstone volcano, it consisted of a mixture of sandstone and basalt, unsurprisingly and uncreatively dubbed sandbasalt. Sandbasalt was extremely easy to mine but useless for making tools, comparable to netherrack.

The other thing that made the desert so remarkable also involved the volcano, it was the Rockbane quarry, a place of slavery. Hundreds of slaves, only equipped with stone and rarely iron pickaxes, were mining the dark yellow stone. They were not allowed to branch mine because if they struck lava it could flood a good portion of the quarry, even though the volcano was mostly inactive.

There was always a slave with an iron pickaxe leading a group of slaves with stone pickaxes. The slaves systematically mined the volcano by taking out sections of sandbasalt, forming a large staircase in the rock. They hadn't progressed far into the mountain yet, a good part of it was still untouched.

The reason why they were mining here was because the volcano brought up valuable materials like diamonds or gold from the depths. Those materials were then sold to other players on the server.

As said, all slaves worked in groups, with long-term slaves as leaders. There was one exception. The one I am talking about was the strangest of them: Three meters tall, black scaled skin, red glowing eyes, short white hair, wearing white clothes and a long coat of the same color. This solitary slave's name was Fire. The admins had granted Fire special abilities like his size or enormous physical strength for reasons unknown to many.

He had played on this server before the quarry got introduced. New players would automatically join the quarry, but he had been captured and brought there.

"Why?" you ask? He was a close friend of the former admins. The server had been hijacked by hackers who denied the original admins all access to it. The hackers had no admin powers, so they couldn't ban him, they brought him to the quarry to keep an eye on him.

This wasn't any regular server either, it used technology that was far ahead of its time. When you joined the server, you would black out and wake up inside the server. This was possible because the server established a connection to the player's brain.

If you died, you would just respawn. You were able to leave the server whenever you wanted with very little time having passed in the real world. The slaves however were denied of the possibility of logging out and were effectively trapped inside the server with no chance of logging out.

Before the hackers attacked there had been no text chat but the hackers had introduced it along with some other changes in order to gain some manner of control over the server. The slaves were naturally unable to use the chat and most players were completely unaware that it even existed at all, hardly anyone had noticed that the hackers took over.

But now, back to this one solitary slave. Fire was mining out an area alone which normally would be assigned to a group of four people. He didn't have any problems keeping up with the other groups, courtesy of the admins' gifts. He just was mining away the stone and packing it into his inventory like nothing, only limited by the durability and brittleness of his stone pickaxe. He also did so today.

* * *

It was a hot evening, Fire was in the center of a desert after all. He raised the pickaxe over his head and struck it down, breaking several blocks at once. The blocky structure of the world and some of the mechanics and mobs were the only thing that reminded you that you were in fact playing Minecraft. The world, its creatures and also the players looked real and terrain wasn't restricted to blocky shapes either.

Mining in the quarry was a boring and not very rewarding job, what else would you expect from slavery? Sometimes old friends came by and tried to convince the hackers to let Fire go, without success. Other players were allowed to mine here too but they weren't allowed to help the slaves by for example giving them tools, armor or potions.

Fire's pickaxe was about to break, he felt it. He closed his eyes and looked into his inventory, there were four full stone picks left, seven, now eight almost broken ones and an iron pickaxe with about half durability. He moved them into his crafting grid and repaired them into one with full durability. He had one and a half rows filled with full stacks of sandbasalt and his hotbar was quite empty, there were only the four pickaxes, some bread and also some iron ore.

Fire decided to take a break behind a stray rock. He sat down, put down his pickaxe and stretched his fingers. He had no finger nails but he didn't need them, he had very hard and scaled skin after all. He also had claws hidden inside of his fingers, he could use them for climbing and also for battle, they were dangerous weapons, one more reason most other slaves avoided him.

He waited behind the rock for a bit and relaxed. He knew that he shouldn't wait any longer or the hackers would notice that he wasn't working. He rose up, took his pickaxe and continued working, smashing his path through the volcanic rock. He was already halfway through his stone pickaxe as he felt something. One of his abilities was to detect energy flowing through the environment, and for some odd reason the ores in the quarry emitted a fair amount of energy, a lot more than those outside of it. If he interpreted the flow correctly it was redstone, a pretty good find. Now he only had to locate it.

He turned his head left and right very quickly, stepped aside and did it again. This was his method of determining where the ore vein was. The ore was about five blocks in the wall at about eye level. He stored the pickaxe in his inventory and extended his sharp claws on his hands and his shoeless feet. He climbed the ten block high wall in a matter of seconds.

Once up, he started to flatten the area out, using careful swings to create a flat surface to make further mining easier. Then once it was flat, he used fully loaded swings again. His style of mining was fast, but also depleted the pickaxe very quickly. Only wooden or stone picks took more damage from this kind of abuse, but not for iron or diamond ones, which were more durable. His powerful swings made the rock shatter, sometimes ripping larger, irregular holes into the rock.

It didn't take him long to quarry-mine his way down to the ore, he mined the last block in front of it and a pulse of energy went through him. He took the iron pickaxe out of his inventory and started carefully mining the vein, he didn't want to destroy the valuable redstone. With short swings of his iron pickaxe he carefully removed the stone around the redstone gemstones, making sure not to destroy them. Redstone dust was actually the product of careless swings shattering the gemstones. The dust could be later ground from the gemstones for higher quality redstone.

After he had removed all the stone, the glowing crystals were lying in front of him. He looked at their beauty for a few seconds, then he packed them into his inventory and dragged them onto his hotbar. He continued mining.


	3. Chapter 2

Fire didn't mine very long into the night after finding the redstone, he depleted one more stone pickaxe before he decided to quit. He wasn't tired, he just wanted to quit mining earlier today, the hackers couldn't blame him, he mined more resources alone than an average group, that and he was almost the only one bringing redstone gems.

Fire backed up a few steps, then put his almost broken stone pick into his inventory, extended his claws and sprinted at the wall with inhuman speed. He climbed, but it looked more like running or even flying up the wall than anything else. When he arrived on the top, he turned around and took a look at the quarry, it looked like a giant had mined a staircase into the volcano. He sat down with his feet hanging down over the edge and watched the slaves put down torches and the hackers turning on redstone lamps inside the processing buildings.

Fire really liked being so high above the quarry, at this altitude he felt some degree of freedom, even though he knew it was just an illusion. He also enjoyed the wind on his scales, sometimes it was warm wind and sometimes it was the bitter cold wind of the desert nights, his only chance to cool off every once in a while. It was always warm or hot in the quarry, during the day because of one obvious reason: the sun. At night it was warm because the sandbasalt stored the heat very well and slowly passed it on to the air, it never cooled off completely.

Fire closed his eyes and looked into his inventory and took a few blocks of sandbasalt, put them on his hotbar and placed them behind him.

"It is no throne of gold with nether wool cushions but it will do." He said.

He leaned back and just stared at the sun sinking below the horizon. It almost looked like it was drowning in the quicksand fields far away. After about twenty minutes of just sitting there and watching the sunset he got up, mined away his improvised chair and started slowly mining the sandbasalt.

He didn't rush it like usually, he didn't expect to find anything, he just finished it to finish it, a weird mindset for a slave. It wasn't that bad being in the quarry, just boring at times, he was provided with food and tools and had something to do. Trying to break out had no point at all, some people tried it and exactly the same amount failed. Fire himself had been tempted to try several times but he knew better than to try and break out. Not yet at least.

He was so absent minded while mining that he noticed the strong waves of energy only as he saw their source. The waves were radiating form the ore which held the well-known and most-wanted blue shiny rocks: diamonds. The strength energy waves radiating from the diamond ore in the quarry always surprised him. He mined around the diamond ore until the vein of eight blocks was floating in front of him, sending even stronger waves now that it was completely uncovered.

Fire pulled out his iron pick and creaked the joints of his fingers. He mined away the sandbasalt around the diamonds even more carefully than he did with the redstone. With tiny pokes of his iron pickaxe he slowly freed the diamonds from their black and yellow prison. It was like with the redstone, the more carefully you mined the ore, the more materials you would get, in this case Fire wound up with twenty diamonds. He didn't put them in his inventory, where they were visible to the hackers, instead he put them into an inside pocket of his coat. The diamonds slowly stopped emitting energy, Fire only felt a slight tingle in his skin near the pocket.

"Those will sell for a high price, they are quite big." He muttered.

Now he didn't care for slow, he put his iron pickaxe back into his inventory, pulled out a fresh stone pickaxe and started hammering at the stone even more powerfully than at any time of the day. He felt the durability bar of the stone pick go down as fast as if he would be using it to kill mobs in an XP farm. The sandbasalt was shattering and bits were flying in every direction. The shaft of the pickaxe vibrated with every hit, Fire heard wood and stone crack. The blocks were breaking as quickly as netherrack when exposed to an Efficiency enchantment. One hit before the pickaxe broke, the area was done. Fire stepped back to the edge and looked at today's work.

"Impresses me every time…" He said to himself and looked into his inventory to take count.

He had two rows full of sandbasalt, a full stack and twelve iron ores, thirty gold ores, thirty-nine redstone gems, twenty diamonds and even forty-seven lapis lazuli, which was very rare in the quarry and very valuable outside of it because of its very pure and powerful blue.

After Fire had done his inventory check he slowly walked towards the wall he made. He was about to return to the sleeping area at the bottom of the quarry, this was his favorite part of work, not because work was over, it was because Fire loved the way how to get down there, or at least the way he himself got down there. It was one of the few things in the world he could still enjoy.

One of the abilities given to him by the admins was that in danger Fire would experience everything in slow motion, giving him more time to think about his actions. This ability was mostly useful in combat but it also had other uses. Over time Fire had gained a large manner of control over this ability, enabling him to use it whenever he wanted instead of just in danger. Fire sprinted towards the edge and as he drew close, the world around him slowed down. Fire's steps were long and had a long air time, his breath went slowly, his pulse was slow but powerful.

A few meters before the ledge, he leaped and landed on both feet with the front part of his feet over the edge. Fire concentrated and jumped with as much force as he could. The state he entered now was one of relaxation, it felt like being in a room without gravity. In this state of antigravity he could almost forget where he was and why, almost. Falling down the cliff felt just like flying he was almost too relaxed to cushion the hit on the floor, again almost. The world returned to normal but slowed down a few seconds after the landing as he approached the next ledge. He jumped again. Five falls later he had arrived at the base of the quarry where the tents of the slaves were, he was usually the last to come down but today he wasn't. Other slaves had already lit some campfires and the usual groups were forming. Fire always sat down with the same group of four other players.

They were a pretty strange group, first there was Fire, the longtime player and friend of the admins who had been brought to the quarry by the hackers.

The second player was TehLulz9001, for short TehLulz. He was tall and averagely built. He was wearing a black suit, which was ragged because of the work. His hair was shoulder long, messy and brown, his eyes were brown as well.

The third player was freeZe60, for short freeZe. She was slim and had completely pitch black skin with entirely green eyes shining out at her head. She was wearing a black shirt and black pants.

The fourth player was Ambigious_Name, for short Ambigious. He was short and quite muscular. He was wearing a blue T-shirt and black jeans. His hair was black and very short and his blue eyes were covered by sunglasses, which reflected the light form the campfire in all rainbow colors. The thing that only few knew about him was that he was freeZe's brother.

The last and newest member was TheUnchosenOne, for short Unchosen. He had black hair, brown eyes and dark skin and he was almost completely covered in vines and leaves which never seemed to tear. He was still unsettled by the new circumstances and therefore didn't talk very much.

This was the firegroup Fire was in, a firegroup were the people sitting together regularly at a campfire, they were not necessarily in the same section of the quarry or in the same mining group, just some people that fate brought together.

Fire walked over to the small campfire that they had, it was always at the same spot, a little bit away from the others, four blocks of sandbasalt were already placed down around the fire, with the members of the firegroup sitting on them. Fire moved a single block of sandbasalt to his hotbar, placed it and sat down on the block which he had seen the most in the last year.


	4. Chapter 3

"Hey Fire!" freeZe said, then added: "You are quite early today."

TehLulz commented: "But as always you are the last one of us."

"Guess what I found today?" Fire asked.

Everyone was looking at him as if they knew the answer even before he asked the question.

"I mean how many I found." He corrected himself.

Ambigious guessed: "Let's say fifty?"

Fire chuckled: "Fifty? Ambigious, not even I have that amount of luck, it was only one vein."

freeZe made the second guess: "One vein you say? Hmm, about fifteen?"

"That was close."

"Twenty?"

"Exactly!"

With these words Fire reached down his pocked and pulled the diamonds out and threw them into the campfire.

Unchosen stared into the fire and said: "They are not being destroyed, are they?"

TehLulz answered: "Nope, we do that to burn the sandbasalt fragments off the gems, they sell better if they are clean. By the way, does anyone have coal?"

Ambigious replied: "No, didn't find any. I swear coal is the rarest thing in this quarry."

Fire looked double checked his inventory. "None on me either."

freeZe handed her brother some coal and said: "Here you go."

Ambigious took the coal and threw it into the fire to raise its temperature.

"May I ask a question?" Unchosen asked.

TehLulz resisted the urge to say "You just did." He instead said: "Go ahead."

"How does the money work in the Quarry?"

TehLulz asked Fire: "Fire, could you explain that?"

Fire cleared his throat and begun: "For everything that you mine there is a base value. If your diamonds are clean you get more and if they are dirty and have to be processed before you can make them into tools you get far less. Sandbasalt has as good as no value, but you still get at least something by selling it. Lapis Lazuli is worth a lot, the blue is much stronger than the blue from lapis found outside. One redstone gem is worth significantly more than one unit of redstone dust. With that money you can buy pickaxes, food or supplies for lighting a fire. There is no physical currency, the hackers keep track of everyone's balance themselves. They usually track it on a per-firegroup basis."

Unchosen nodded and answered: "I understand."

Fire continued explaining: "Every week we change who is responsible for selling mined resources and buying food and tools. It is my turn in the next week, which starts tomorrow. The Shop Guy doesn't like me very much, he is jealous that the admins gave me those powers."

freeZe said with a little spark of anger in her voice: "It is just unfair that they give you the worst prices, Fire, and of course me the best. Because… well, you all know why!"

Awkward silence followed, only Ambigious was trying to resist grinning but failed, he made a sound that sounded like suppressed laughter, then he started laughing for real, which resulted in everybody in the firegroup looking at him.

He calmed down and asked: "Is he really giving you the pretty girl bonus?"

freeZe answered: "You know, it's taking all of my willpower not to punch you right now."

"Punch him, not me!" Ambigious said and defensively raised his hands.

freeZe replied: "I might if he makes another remark."

Ambigious replied: "Oh, if he does that we beat him up together. Though I wouldn't be of much help there, I think you have that front covered with your kung fu or whatever martial art it is you're doing."

TehLulz asked: "Are the diamonds done?"

"I think so." Fire replied.

Unchosen was still staring into the fire and asked half-loudly: "How are you getting them out of there?"

Instead of answering, Fire reached into the flames, formed a bowl with his hands around the diamonds and took most of them out of the fire, then reached in again to pick the rest of the gems out between the bits of glowing coal and ash.

Unchosen stared at Fire, clearly surprised. "Did you just reach into the campfire without being burned?"

Fire was cooling his hands with his breath and answered: "One of the perks of being me, resistance to heat and fire, I won't survive a bath in lava but I am fireproof."

"I can imagine that can come in handy. That's one hell of an advantage."

"Yes. But if you would have seen what the admins did in the early stages of development when they were testing you would be more impressed."

Ambigious had calmed down from his previous fit of laughter and wanted to know: "Should we smelt the ores now or should we wait?"

TehLulz threw his iron and gold ores to the floor, so did everyone else, this was the way of saying "Let's smelt them!" It was the first smelting round for Unchosen so he didn't know. He just threw them because everyone else did. Fire took one of his pickaxes and started digging straight down in one place, this was where they had their furnaces, hidden away from others.

His voice could be heard out of the hole he dug: "Throw them down."

TehLulz pushed the ores down into the furnace room. The furnace room was a small room with nine furnaces in it. Fire distributed the ores so that they could be smelted the fastest, if he had any coal to smelt them with...

"Coal please!" He said.

A few seconds later he saw freeZe's face appear at the top of the hole, only the eyes were shining out, her face and hair had almost the same color as the night sky, almost a bit darker.

She threw some coal down and asked: "Is that enough?"

"Maybe, let me look!"

He put some coal in the fuel space of the furnace and saw that it was enough.

"Yes, it's enough, lighter pl… wait, just found mine."

With those words Fire pulled a flint and steel out of an inside pocket and lit the coal on fire, the room started heating up instantly, Fire took some blocks and jump-pillared up the hole he made. Once he was at the top, he sat down on his block again. The others were meanwhile discussing something.

TehLulz said: "…and what if you ask your mining group if you could mine with your firegroup for one day? Mine said it is ok."

freeZe replied: "I don't see why not."

Fire joined the conversation: "Oh are we doing a firegroup mining day tomorrow? Where? Should we start a new row?"

TehLulz said: "Well… We thought of going to your area, is that okay with you?"

"Of course it is." He paused and then asked: "Unchosen, have you been at the crater already?"

He replied: "No."

"Okay, then we'll do some lava mining, freeZe, could you ask for permission to use a diamond pickaxe and water buckets?"

freeZe asked in an unwilling tone: "Why exactly me?"

Fire glanced at Ambigious, turned back to freeZe and said: "I'm afraid we'll need a pretty girl bonus to get that permission. I know he won't grant it to me."

Ambigious was about to laugh again but this time he could keep himself from exploding.

"Okay, I'll ask..."

TehLulz said: "Hey, hey, you know what just came to my mind?"

Everyone asked at the same time: "What?"

"Tomorrow Fire will have been here for exactly one year."

Fire scratched his head with slightly extended claws.

Fire said: "Yes, you are right…" then, quite unlike himself, he shouted "World Record!" so loudly that the whole quarry could hear it and everybody in the firegroup started laughing.


	5. Chapter 4

They didn't talk for very long after smelting the ores, everyone walked over to their tents and went to sleep. The tents were not very big, they were green triangular prisms of wool. They all had the same length, which was too short for Fire, his feet were poking out at the end. It never took long to fall asleep there, even though you didn't have much cushioning, the work was just so exhausting that you could sleep on almost everything. Fire was always the last to fall asleep and the first to wake up, he didn't need much sleep.

The next morning Fire crawled out of his tent and yawned, it was time to sell the mined resources, which meant that he had to haggle with the Shop Guy once again. The Shop Guy joined the hacker team after the takeover, he didn't use a client himself, he still was connected to the server like most of the players, through his brain, his abilities were managed through the main hacker's clients. Of course his name wasn't really "Shop Guy" but everyone just called him that, including the hackers from what Fire had heard. Needless to say, his low place in the hacker hierarchy didn't help his ego, which he took out on the slaves.

Fire looked into his inside pocket to see if the diamonds were still there, pickpocketing was very common in the quarry but it did really take some courage to pickpocket someone like Fire, it hadn't happened to him yet, the others hadn't been as lucky.

He felt a bit like celebrating but on the other side it was a bad thing to be in the quarry one year, he didn't think that he had much time left…

"Nevermind." He said.

He walked towards the campfire and the furnaces but noticed with surprise that Unchosen was already there waiting for him.

"Morning Fire." He greeted him.

Fire greeted back: "Morning Unchosen, why up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep." He said, paused and then continued: "Are you going to open it up?"

"Yeah, stand back there is quite some pressure in there."

Fire moved a stone pickaxe onto his hotbar and started mining down the blocks. As he opened the furnace room up, a blast of hot air went out, heating up the surrounding area.

"Impressive, right?"

Unchosen replied: "Right, I don't want to be the one to accidentally dig into the furnace room."

Fire explained: "That happened once, but it was right after we put the coal in and only two furnaces were running, he still got some pretty decent burning wounds, now he is showing off with the scars and tells everyone that he got hit by a blob of lava near the crater."

"So if you die you keep the scars? Or wounds?"

"He didn't die. If you die, you can respawn, but wounds or scars become permanent after some time so you keep them after respawning. If you want scars removed or missing parts regrown, you'll have to drink a powerful healing potion."

"Good to know that."

The air in the furnace room had cooled down enough for Fire to jump down and take the now smelted ores out.

Fire jump-pillared out like the evening before and said: "Pretty good week, about two-hundred iron and a bit more than a hundred gold. We'll have to wait for the others to count the rest of the mined materials."

They sat down on their blocks again but without lighting the campfire, the sandbasalt was even darker than everywhere else, almost as black as freeZe's skin. Unchosen stared into the ashes of the wood and coal they burned yesterday.

Fire looked at him and asked: "Why are you always staring into the campfire?"

"I am thinking of my family."

"Oh, I see, everyone is like that in the first few weeks, it is shocking to be locked in this place."

"I am trying not to think about my family too much because it makes me even sadder, you and the others are a great help, you know?"

"I have heard that from the others too, first freeZe and Ambigious came here, then about a month later TehLulz, then two months later, that means now, you."

"So you were here alone for nine months?"

"Yes. It was a lonely time, but then our firegroup formed. Before that I rarely went down, I worked two days and slept one night, smelted the ores every week and then sold them to the guy. Nobody knew who I was, they avoided me. I wouldn't go close to someone who looked like me if I were a regular slave either. It just happened that freeZe and Ambigious spawned right in my section, so we formed a group. One month later they invited TehLulz to our group, you cannot imagine how grumpy he was back then, he didn't laugh about anything but look at him now."

"I still cannot imagine living in slavery on my own for nine months, wasn't that very depressing?"

"I was able to deal with it." Fire said, he continued: "As much I want to sit here and talk, I have to go sell the stuff. I'll wake the others up, they will be there in about ten minutes, well for Ambigious it might be twenty. See you later in this place."

With these words he stood up, took the ingots and sprinted towards the camp, where he yelled into each of the tents of the members of the firegroup, telling them to get up.

As they got out of the tents Fire told them to give him the resources to be sold.

freeZe yawned: "How do you manage to get up so early…"

She and the others threw the lapis, coal, redstone gems and diamonds at Fire, he picked them up and rushed towards the place where the Shop Guy was.

* * *

"Four-hundred?" Fire asked "The prizes have fallen suspiciously quickly."

The Shop Guy always had a mocking grin on his face, at least in Fire's presence. He smiled at Fire and said: "Well, Fire. They in fact have, hand me the diamonds and I will give you four-hundred each."

Fire leaned over to the Shop Guy, bowing over him and said: "You will pay me the regular price."

A small spark of fear appeared in the Shop Guys eyes but disappeared after a second later after he recovered his facade.

He said: "This is the regular price. Now… hand them over!"

Fire extended his claws, resulting in ten small holes in the wooden table the Shop Guy was sitting at.

"Don't come with the claw show again, I'm not falling for that anymore, I know that you wouldn't hurt a person."

Fire put on an evil grin, showing his shining fangs and said with a cold voice: "I may not be the pacifist I have made you believe I am. Besides, you are no person to me, turning coat and joining the hackers."

The spark of fear appeared again, this time for longer and more intense, but anger was mixed into the spark as well. Fire knew he was playing a dangerous game but he had enough of the Shop Guy's arrogance. He also knew that if he would just hand them over he would appear weak, and appearing weak was the last thing he wanted in front of the Shop Guy.

"Don't you dare to attempt to intimidate me! Hand. Them. Over!"

"Come and get them."

The Shop Guy threatened: "You don't want to force me to activate my kill aura!"

Fire taunted him: "Oh, your mighty unarmed kill aura, I am so scared."

Fire knew that the Shop Guy had orders not to harm or kill slaves since it could provoke a riot but Fire also knew about his violent tendencies.

The Shop Guy tried his best to stay calm: "Hand them over now! Let's end this pointless discussion!"

"I will hand them over for the regular price."

"No! Four-hundred!"

Fire was about to say something he could regret, he saw that the Shop Guy was about to burst in rage but he had wanted to do this ever since he had been in the quarry. His talk with Unchosen had also made him realize something, it was time.

Fire's voice was as cold as ice and his eyes had an aggressive, cold shine in them, making them appear even redder than normally. He said: "Fine. I will hand them over for four-hundred… but…"

The Shop Guy was very surprised and thus lost his I-don't-give-a-damn facade for another five seconds.

He said: "But what?"

Fire didn't want to give him the answer right away, he wanted him to let the Shop Guy's rage disable his ability to think logically.

"Figure it out!"

The Shop Guy finally recovered his facade and said sarcastically: "Let me guess… You want to challenge me to beat you in a fight?"

"Exactly that."

"What kind of bad joke is this? You cannot reach me with my kill aura on!"

"What if I could?"

"How?"

"I'm not telling you that!" Fire said in a provocative tone.

The Shop Guy had enough, he let out a scream and then shouted at Fire: "Okay! Let's do this!"

Fire replied calmly: "Good, let me set some rules."

"What? Rules are for losers!"

Fire ignored him and replied: "The duel takes place in the arena, mobs off, you can use whatever you have access to, so can I. No noclip, no godmode, no everything that makes it flat out impossible to win, you can use kill aura though. And if I win, you will have to buy for seven-hundred."

The fact that Fire was keeping so cool setting the rules so that it was impossible for himself to win by allowing kill aura doubled the intensity of the Shop Guy's rage, making him shout at Fire even louder: "You will see what you get from that! Endless pain!"

After these words the Shop Guy called a lead hacker, who transported them into the arena about ten thousand blocks away.


	6. Chapter 5

The arena was a very impressive place, a circle with a diameter of five-hundred, seats that could hold thousands of people. In the middle, dramatically emphasized by a circle of light, was the actual battleground. In this arena epic battles were fought. The floor had pistons under it and was capable of forming a mountain or a valley and you could flood the arena with water or lava.

Fire was brought into one of the arena's preparation rooms, it was made of stone brick and its cracked and mossy variants. Fire took some deep breaths to calm himself down, he needed to be perfectly calm for the battle, only that way he could outsmart the Shop Guy. With brute force he would not be able defeat him. Fire was sure that the Shop Guy would take diamond gear with the best enchantments available. He wouldn't have any potions because all the good alchemists refused to make potions for the hackers and spawned in potions were of questionable quality.

Fire stood up and walked towards the iron bars blocking the door to the arena.

He shouted "I am ready!"

* * *

freeZe was about to start worrying about where Fire was, but then a text message appeared before her eyes, it was one of the lead hackers broadcasting a chat message, which hadn't happened ever, to her knowledge.

"Epic duel in the arena starting in ten minutes!"

freeZe turned around and grabbed her brother's shoulders and said: "That must be Fire, maybe the Shop Guy finally snapped and challenged him."

Ambigious was a little confused by his sister's reaction but nodded: "Yeah…"

freeZe's voice was full of worry: "We need to get there! But how?"

The second broadcast message appeared: "To watch the battle, use /arena spectator seats!"

"Great, we don't have access to the chat." Ambigious moaned.

"What could we do?"

TehLulz, who was called by freeZe's scream, said: "We could hope that someone picks us up."

"What?" freeZe asked.

"Oh, you were sleeping when Fire told us that story, it was when you fell and broke your legs, remember that? Fire told us that once in a while his friends show up here in the quarry, one time they managed to smuggle in an invisibility potion so Fire could sneak into the hacker's building and listen to what they were saying." TehLulz explained.

"What did they say?"

"He didn't tell us, he said that it wasn't that important."

Ambigious interrupted them and said: "I'll go get Unchosen, he is still at the fireplace." He walked off.

TehLulz continued: "The point is, why wouldn't they come now? I think they also know that Fire has to do something with this 'epic duel'."

* * *

The iron bars rose up and fell down again after Fire had walked through, now he stood on the edge to the arena, in this case it had formed a circle of sand with water around the outside. Fire himself had designed this preset for the arena, it was supposed to be used as arena in a battle against weak monsters and apparently they thought that they could taunt him by using this preset and thus comparing him to a monster, a weak monster.

Fire didn't feel offended by the usage of this preset, in fact he was confident because he knew the secrets he had built into it. One of them was a secret escape route into the machine room he built to give the fighters a way to escape the monsters and in his case his opponent if he couldn't defeat him. He would run straight to the preset switches and would flip the "incinerate survivors" lever, which would unleash an almost never ending stream of fire charges and for the finish some TNT and in this case, "some" meant "a lot" or even more clearly "a literal ton".

Fire continued to walk into the arena, behind him the sand on which he entered the arena sunk into the water to block his way back. In front of him, the other bars opened and his opponent walked out of the door, still in furious rage but now in full diamond gear, obviously enchanted.

PvP in the arena was off when no battle was happening, it only got turned on as the battle began to prevent angry contestants from hurting one another when they were not ready. Fire was ready, he now only needed to wait for the ten minutes to run out, eight were left.

* * *

The four other members of the firegroup were desperately trying to find a way to get to the arena without using the command and came to the conclusion that it was impossible.

"But why did he even accept the challenge to fight him, it is certain that he is going to lose." Unchosen said with a fair bit of panic in his voice.

Ambigious was angry instead of scared, he growled: "If we ever get out of here, I will find out where those hackers live and stab them in their sleep."

"That doesn't help Fire now, we need help!" Said freeZe.

Suddenly they heard another voice, it sounded soft but had a little scratch to it, a tiny bit like a cat talking in a human language, it seemed to belong to a man.

It said: "Need a hand?"

They heard a slurp and a person in full diamond armor appeared behind them. They turned around and stared at the man that interrupted their talk.

"Wait, you are one of Fire's friends, right?" freeZe said.

"Correct, but we don't have much time. Here, drink that, we will explain everything later."

With these words he gave them four tiny vials with a grey and semi-transparent liquid in them.

Unchosen asked: "What is this… stuff?"

"Invisibility potion, now drink!"

Ambigious was the first one to drink, he shook after drinking.

"That stuff is ice cold!"

Everyone else also drank.

"When is it going to kick in?" TehLulz asked.

"Any second now." Fire's friend answered.

"Wow, look at my hand, it is transparent now, wait, it is gone." Ambigious said.

freeZe said: "Now only your clothes are left, oh, what about the clothes by the way?"

"They will become invisible in a few seconds, I don't have enough time to explain why, I can only tell you that I am among the best alchemists on the server."

After their clothes had vanished the mysterious person said: "Okay, everybody grab my hand so that the teleportation affects you too."

"Ready" Said Unchosen and TehLulz, who had grabbed his right hand, Ambigious and freeZe took his left hand and also said "Ready".

"I am going to enter the command now, be silent and do not bump into anyone. Three, two, one, go!"

They felt how they were flying over the map with high speed and ended up in the arena.

"Quick, follow me!" Fire's friend said and ran up some stairs to an area of the seats where no people were sitting.

"Epic duel in the arena starting in five minutes!" The broadcast said again.

"You all there?" He asked and a quadruple "Yes" came back.

"Good. Come, let's go to the bars."

The arena was covered by a hemisphere of iron bars assembled in a somewhat random grid with chains hanging down from them, the holes were not big enough to keep someone from fitting through it they really wanted to. The iron bars were mainly for show but also to keep fighters who were flung by explosions or preset-specific contraptions from flying into the seats and landing on the people sitting there.

"You all there?" he asked again and got the same answer again.

The second broadcast message appeared again: "To watch the battle, type /arena spectator seats!"

The tension in the arena was very high, the two fighters were ready to fight. Now everybody was fevering towards the moment that the battle would begin. When it was one minute before the battle, the broadcast repeated the last two messages. The Shop Guy activated his kill aura, his arms disappeared, which was caused by them moving very quickly and trying to hit every possible target in range, combined with his sword and Fire's lack of armor it basically made it obvious who would win.

* * *

Fire stared at his opponent. He had a plan, but executing it would be hard, but for emergency he had a second plan and if this one would fail, he had a third one, and if that one failed he would be dead. Fire was not afraid of dying, neither in Minecraft nor in real life, he just didn't want to. He lost that fear after he had died the first time on this server, it had been a very strange experience, nothing he would like to repeat and definitely not something that was possible to describe with words.

The broadcast said: "Let the battle begin!"


	7. Chapter 6

Fire could barely avoid the incoming attack, his opponent was charging at him at full speed, thinking he could end the battle as soon as it began. Fire jumped aside, rolled and came back to his feet in one fluent movement. The Shop Guy had to fight against the momentum he and his heavy diamond armor had built up. While the armor protected him it was also a disadvantage for the Shop Guy because its weight made him less maneuverable.

Fire extended his claws all the way out, normally they looked like cat claws coming out of his fingertips but when fully extended they were deadly sabers capable of cutting everything into slices that was unlucky enough to be in their way. Fire's opponent had come to a stop and turned around, still with active kill aura, the air was searing hot from the sword cutting through it in every possible angle.

It was now Fire's turn to attack while the Shop Guy recomposed. He ran towards him, the world around him entered a slow motion state like when he was jumping down the quarry. He pretended to attack him directly but then jumped over him with a gigantic leap. While falling, Fire turned around right after he landed and he covered the back of his opponent's diamond chestplate with a furious rain of strikes from his claws.

The Shop Guy's arms couldn't reach his back so there was a hole in the kill aura, the hacks weren't built for a server that simulates realistic situations. The chestplate flashed purple every time Fire hit it, no damage was going through but its durability was degrading. A second after Fire had landed the Shop Guy noticed what was going on and turned around as fast as his armor let him. It looked very slow to Fire, who had enough time to escape the deadly blade storm of the kill aura. Fire sprinted around his opponent and towards the other side of the arena.

* * *

Ambigious' feelings were a mixture of tension, hatred towards the hackers and amazement about Fire avoiding the hits and attacking over and over again.

"If they continue like this, Fire is going to win." he whispered.

freeZe was worried, now more than before, she said: "The hacker is angry but not dumb, he will soon notice that it can't continue like this."

Fire's friend spoke in his soft voice, without a trace of worry: "Fire will probably win, but this is not how, this is just him killing time and thinking of a better strategy."

"True, this chestplate will break eventually, but not any time soon." Unchosen agreed.

* * *

As they spoke Fire got into a bad situation, he didn't roll far enough to get out of the hackers range, who noticed this. He made a curve and ran towards Fire, ready to reduce him to a bloody pile of bones, flesh and organs. Fire, was lying on the floor, he couldn't escape. Even though he saw everything in slow motion, this didn't actually increase his speed. The world around Fire kept getting slower and slower in face of the growing danger.

Suddenly the hacker stopped and turned his kill aura off, the world returned to normal speed.

Fire asked: "What now?"

The hacker laughed and whispered: "Do you really think, that I will just give you a swift death?"

Fire was calm on the outside, but in fact he tried to think of a way to avert his fate, he said: "In all honesty, no. I know about your mental state."

Fire's only weapon now was more provocation, that way he could either make the hacker make a mistake or just kill him faster.

The hacker was somewhat perplexed: "What?"

Fire now spoke with a loud voice, so that every single person in the arena could hear him: "Yes, your mental state, you have all kinds of problems up there."

"That's wrong, do not listen to him!" the Shop Guy said in an overly cool tone.

"Oh yes it is true."

Anger was boiling in the hacker's head again, making his vision blurry and his thoughts short, he shouted: "Prove it!"

"As your praised leaders may know, you can in fact look into someone else's mind here, which is why they are here."

The Shop Guy made a confused face, which was almost covered by his visor.

"Oh, they didn't tell you about it? You were here before their takeover and you were afraid of being sent to the quarry like me, so you joined them. On the side, by doing this you also violated the terms you agreed to when you joined, you are lucky that the admins' enforcer hasn't come for you yet."

The people on the ranks began booing out the Shop Guy.

"Before the takeover the admins took a brief look into every new person's mind whenever they joined, this whole server is for an experiment after all. They clearly found out about your mental state and because am a close friend of theirs, I happened to see that information too."

The Shop Guy didn't say anything, he had to think about what he just heard. He let out a scream of insanity, raised his sword above his head and prepared to execute Fire.

* * *

The four invisible people on the ranks listened to all that with open mouths.

Unchosen stuttered: "So the hackers are not just here to enjoy the feeling of power? They have a goal."

Fire's friend said: "Yes, they have one and if you knew it, you wouldn't like it."

freeZe asked: "Why didn't he tell us earlier?"

"It is all part of Fire's plan."

"What pl…"

"Shh, look!"

They turned their heads towards the bars again and they didn't like what they saw there: The Shop Guy, with his sword in hand, jumped into the air, turned his sword and let it come down on Fire. But suddenly Fire was not there anymore, he was behind the hacker with the claw on his index finger extended all the way. The sword drilled itself into the sand where Fire used to be a second ago.

"What?" The Shop Guy shouted. "Where did he go?"

That was the last thing he said before he felt a cold stinging pain, right where the gap between helmet and chestplate was.

Fire had slit the Shop Guy's throat with his claw. Fire had won, he retracted his claw. The people on the ranks started cheering for Fire.

The Shop Guy somehow managed to pull his sword out of the ground and slashed out for Fire one final time. The sword cut right through his coat at his left shoulder, it was torn apart in a clean cut, so were his scales and a big portion of the muscles under it. The sword would have cut Fire's arm right off if the Shop Guy hadn't been almost dead when he launched the attack, instead it stopped at Fire's collarbone. The sword slid out of the wound, making it extend over Fire's chest.

In the first moment, Fire didn't feel anything. Then he felt the cold blade and the hot magic burning and tearing apart his flesh, he was knocked off his feet by a pulse of energy coming from of the sword. While falling he opened his mouth and let out a loud scream of pain, his voice had an otherworldly screeching resonance to it, making everybody on the ranks press their hands on their ears, then suddenly, the scream was over, the last thing Fire heard before blacking out was someone calling his name.

* * *

"Fire!" His four invisible friends screamed at the same time, the visible one was searching his pockets in haste.

He found what he was looking for and said: "Someone, quick, bring this to him."

He hadn't even finished as he felt the vial with pink liquid being ripped out of his hand.

He heard a female voice saying: "I'll do that."

Despite the desperate situation Ambigious still poked TehLulz invisibly, the expression on his face was easy to guess, but he didn't say anything.

freeZe ran, she looked for a gap in the grid that was big enough for her to fit through. She put her feet through and then the rest of her body, hung herself down from the bars, the vial in one hand. freeZe dropped down, trying not to land in the water. As she landed on the sand, she felt a sting in her feet but ignored it and ran right over to Fire who was lying on the ground next to the body of his dead opponent. She shook Fire's body, crying and calling his name.

Fire was not dead but he was bleeding out, the only thing he felt was the pain, it was a feeling he could hardly describe, it was a sting and pull at the same time. It had been a long time since he had been subjected to this amount of pain and he had no time to prepare himself for it. Under normal circumstances he would have been able to easily resist the pain but due to the malnourishment in the quarry his physical condition wasn't the best. After an unknowable amount of time something appeared at the very edge of his perception, it was not very big but it was something other than pain.

His mind was violently pulled out of its blacked out state, he woke up, the pain was even stronger now and he wished he would black out again. He didn't see what woke him up, he just felt that someone was shaking his body, he also saw a vial with a pink liquid inside it and recognized it as regeneration potion. It seemed so surreal that he thought that it was just a hallucination caused by the pain. Then his sense of hearing kicked in, he heard the people on the ranks yelling and crying, there was also someone crying right next to him, Fire didn't know who it was, then he looked at the vial again, he knew only one person using these kinds of vials… And he only knew one person who would cry like this if he would have died, well two, but only one of them could be here.

"freeZe?" He said with a very quiet voice, shaken by pain.

"Yes?" Her voice was full of hope again.

"Could you please give me that potion?"

"O… Of course." She stuttered.

She opened the vial and emptied it into Fire's mouth, he swallowed and his body relaxed a bit. He could feel how the liquid ran down his throat and on the way down got absorbed by his blood. It felt like cold fire running in his veins, first directionless, then more and more towards his would, rebuilding cracked bones and torn muscles, taking his pain away. He fell asleep, part from the exhaustion, part from the potion.


	8. Chapter 7

„He's alive!" freeZe yelled, still with invisible tears running down her cheeks.

Fire's friend raised a thumb, walked down to the bars, threw an ender pearl through and disappeared. He reappeared next to Fire and inspected his wound with a worried face.

He said: "He will need a stronger regeneration potion than this one if you want him to survive. He's quite weak from the year he spent in the quarry." freeZe was about to say something, but got interrupted by Fire's friend: "We need to bring him to the quarry, now."

He pulled another vial with a white liquid in it out of a pocket and drank it, he cleared his throat and spoke with potion-amplified voice: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to explain some things, the loser of this battle, our Shop Guy here got challenged by Fire. In the months before he gave Fire unfair treatment only because of his personal hatred against Fire. Fire won, but look at the price he had to pay! You heard what he said, it was the truth. Do you agree with this, qofrghz122, head member of the hacker group?"

After a short delay a message appeared: "Yes, Fire won, we will expel the Shop Guy, he will no longer be part of the group, Fire will get his money, a thousand per diamond."

The people on the ranks cheered but Fire's friend had a strange look in his eyes that was hard to read from.

Another message appeared on the screen: "I will warp you back to the quarry."

* * *

They stopped at their fireplace, Fire was still lying on the ground. Fire's friend was already running to the tents to get some wool to make a somewhat comfortable place for Fire to lie on. Everybody stared at him when he arrived there, he was still wearing diamond armor after all. He walked over to Fire's tent and began taking it down first, the others' tents followed. He put them into his inventory and sprinted back to Fire, freeZe, Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen.

* * *

Fire opened his eyes again, everything was a bit blurry, his wound was still there, it still hurt a bit but it was way better than in the arena, the ends were starting to grow back together and it had stopped bleeding, courtesy of the regeneration potion. His vision slowly turned normal, he was still tired and the only part of his body he could control were his eyes, he noticed someone next to him, he couldn't see who exactly it was but it seemed like Ambigious. Fire seemed to be lying on an improvised mattress that was made from folded together tents.

"Are you okay?" Ambigious asked.

Fire only managed to produce a low, extended grunt, then coughed.

"I will count that as yes." He stood up and called the others: "Hey, he woke up!" Then he said in a quiet voice: "Looks pretty bad, that wound, does it hurt?"

Fire had fully woken up and recovered his voice. "It's not that bad, the potion has a large part in that."

The quiet was broken by the others arriving, asking questions and talking at the same time.

"Shhhh!" Fire's friend and Ambigious said simultaneously.

Fire leaned on his healthy arm and said: "Okay, now we will have to tell you about it, you start Brad."

Fire's friend started talking: "Okay, first of all let me tell you my name. I am Brad, I was one of the first players to join the server. The admins were still figuring out their integration code, which caused some… interesting bugs like your arms or legs disappearing spontaneously, fun times. Then the server got more and more popular, not really popular but there were at least a hundred people playing at a time, which was a lot for this server at that time, nothing compared to now but for the time it was a lot."

"Wait a minute!" freeZe interrupted Brad "How did you even hear about this server?"

"The admins went around the internet or in person to recruit suitable people, then gave them their site's address. The people would go to the site, register and agree to the terms and conditions. That included things like not to tell nobody about it, except their direct relatives or close friends, there are also some harsh consequences for breaking those terms. Then they are told the server IP so they could log in. If you aren't registered and try to log in it will just kick you out."

Fire continued: "It was only a matter of time for hackers to find the server, there have been many attempts to hack the server. The hackers we have now took a completely different approach, they didn't attack the server, they attacked the admins and made them unable counteract their following direct attack. After that they had more than enough time to take over the server as well. They spread the IP and disabled the login system and also took over everything else Minecraft related, the only thing they couldn't figure out was the code of the software that makes the connection to the brain possible, it's way too complicated for anyone except for the admins. That and it is currently tied to Minecraft, which they don't want."

"What do they want?" Unchosen, who had kept himself in the background, asked.

"They want to sell the software to the highest bidder, they hope that they get rich from it. From what I've heard some private military organization already showed interest."

TehLulz asked: "How are they going to sell it if they can't even separate it from Minecraft?"

"They want to force the admins to give them the code in its raw form."

"How?"

Fire took his time for the answer: "By killing us."

Everybody except Brad jumped: "What?"

Fire's voice was perfectly calm: "Time doesn't stand still outside, eventually everybody in the quarry will die of dehydration, I will probably die as the very first one, I have been in here for six real time days, after seven survival is very unlikely."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" freeZe asked.

"Yes. Remember what I said is the only thing the hackers can't understand and therefore a good place to hide a way out?"

Everyone's eyes widened in realization: "The code…"

"Yes, exactl…" Fire's words were interrupted by a spasm going through his body.

"Fire, are you alright?" Ambigious asked.

"Brad, regen, quick!" Fire pressed out between his lips.

Fire's body was shaking uncontrollably and intensely.

Brad pulled another regeneration potion out of a pocket he could access with his armor on, this time a big bottle.

Fire opened his mouth and drank the potion very quickly, he felt again how the potion dispersed into his blood and then focusing on the wound, the pain was still there but it was getting better and better with every second.

"Wow, what was that?" Ambigious asked.

Brad answered: "All pain blocked by the potion got unleashed in one moment, which is what happens if the potion wears off before the wound is completely closed."

Fire continued explaining as if nothing had happened: "They hid numerous artefacts around the server map. Even though there are a lot, only a few are actually relevant to escaping. I only know about three." He collected his breath for his next sentence: "Now I have to ask you something, I need you to help me free the server from the hackers."

Unchosen asked: "How?"

"I want you to help me gather the artefacts. I am warning you, it will be difficult, more than that, almost impossible."

"We will help!" freeZe said before anyone else could answer. "We won't just let you die."

Ambigious asked: "Wait a second, as far as I know you aren't blocked from using the menu, why don't you just log out?"

"Because I am an anchor, my presence here acts as some sort of a safeguard for the server. As long as I'm online I create interference and they need to actively keep the server under control, which allows them to be tracked eventually. I can't leave the server or the hackers will fully take over and basically have an infinite amount of time to kill people undetected and use that as a means to pressure the admins."

"Oh, I see…" Said TehLulz and added a question: "What are we even looking for?"

"We are looking for… The Ban Hammer."

Everybody from the firegroup stared at Fire.

"The what?"

"The Ban Hammer, it is backdoor put in by the admins if no other way out is left. It gives the one holding it absolute control over the server."

"Where is it?"

"I don't know, I only know for certain where one of the artefacts, the Ultimate Base Potion, is. I will tell you more about it when we find it. The other artefacts I know of are the Ender Dragon Egg and the Axe of Eric the Viking."

"And why are the hackers not just collecting them?"

"They don't even know about them! They wouldn't be able to use them anyways, the Ban Hammer can only be used by an anchor."

"What is the plan?" Ambigious asked and then added: "It is time to show those hackers who is the boss!"


	9. Chapter 8

"I can't tell you the plan just yet, a lot of it will be adapted as we go along anyways, I can tell you one thing though. We will go mining at the crater tomorrow. freeZe, could you ask for the equipment now?"

"Okay" She said.

freeZe walked off in the direction of the shop, which now had a different shopkeeper, just a regular player who volunteered to do the job until someone else was found.

Brad once again inspected Fire's wound and said: "It will be grown back together tomorrow, it works much faster while sleeping. By the way, here are the things you asked for."

With these words he gave Fire a bag and warped away without any further words.

"Just out of interest, what is in that bag?" TehLulz asked.

Fire answered: "It is part of the plan, you will see when the time comes. Go and sell the stuff. Tell the shopkeeper that it is from me."

Fire unloaded a bunch of gems and ingots from his inventory, TehLulz picked it up and also walked towards the shop.

"You two, please go now, I need some sleep, it is quite late already and I am very tired." Fire said with a yawn.

Unchosen replied: "No problem, night Fire."

While walking away from Fire Ambigious said: "Wow, I haven't noticed how quickly the time passed."

* * *

The first thing Fire did the next morning was touch the spot where the wound had been, it was entirely gone. He still felt the regeneration potion inside him, giving him energy and fixing some minor injuries from work and from the battle. The only thing that was not intact was his coat, it had a huge hole.

"Damn it, I'll have to fix this thing once again." He noticed TehLulz next to him, smiling.

TehLulz said: "This is probably the one and only time you wake up last."

Fire grinned and asked: "How much did you get?"

TehLulz said: "Quite a lot, it's in the five digit range."

Fire said: "Too bad we won't need that money anymore."

"Yeah, true." He paused. "Can you tell us at least where we are going first?"

"I can, we are going to my base."

"Nice, is it far?"

Fire answered in a mysterious voice: "Depends which way you take… It can be way farther away than the arena, but it can also be closer than the edge of the desert."

TehLulz at first was confused and then seemed to know the answer: "Oh, I know how, does it involve purple?"

Fire replied, satisfied that TehLulz had figured out his riddle: "Oh yes, it does."

"Why is there one in the volcano?"

Fire smiled: "It was an accident."

"Ah, I see."

They were interrupted by freeZe yelling: "Hey, guys, I made us breakfast!"

Fire stood up, stretched and whispered to TehLulz: "Let's see if she can cook like I can."

Fire always made the food because he was the only one of the group who was able to cook something that you could eat without throwing up, freeZe refused to cook since her brother started making jokes about it, this day was an exception since Fire had been wounded.

"What did you make for breakfast?" Ambigious asked.

She replied: "Toast… as close as it gets to toast anyways, bought some cheese, bread and eggs from the shop and cooked it over the fire."

"Sounds tasty." Unchosen said.

They sat down and started eating from their stone plates, now they realized how hungry they really were.

* * *

With the claws of one hand deep in sandbasalt Fire reached down to help Ambigious up, he was the last one to get up the final section where the slaves had mined. Ambigious stepped back, sprinted to build up momentum, then jumped and grabbed Fire's hand. Fire catapulted Ambigious up with a powerful movement of his formerly wounded arm, the regeneration potion had worked wonders.

"Oof!" Ambigious said as he landed on the side.

He stood up climbed up the wall to where the others were, Fire pulled himself up over the ledge and followed, five diamond pickaxes and the same number of water buckets in his inventory.

"How far is it? I am exhausted already, I got up early today." freeZe said.

Fire answered: "Oh, it isn't that far up to the crater, the real journey begins when we are up."

They arrived after about ten minutes of half-climbing-half-walking on the burning hot sandbasalt, which was getting hotter and hotter towards the crater.

Fire warned: "Okay, cover your eyes. Well, not Ambigious, you already have your sunglasses."

Everybody except Fire and Ambigious did so and looked over the edge of the crater. Even with the covered eyes, Ambigious shades and Fire's resistant eyes the Lava was blinding them in the first few seconds.

"Whoa!" TehLulz and Unchosen said simultaneously "That is bright!"

When their vision wasn't all white again, they saw one of the most impressive things that nature and Minecraft had to offer. The lava's yellow and red glow perfectly mixed with the yellow part of the sandbasalt, making it hard to tell, where the lava pool in the middle ended and where the superheated stone began. The walls sharply fell down, you could still climb up from inside but you certainly couldn't go down safely. Everything had a red glow from the lava.

Once everyone had recovered Fire poured one bucket of water into the crater and temporally extinguished the bright red glow.

"Hop in!" He said.

Fire jumped over the ledge, picked the water source up while falling and landed on the relatively thin layer of obsidian the water had formed, it gave out an intimidating crack but didn't break.

"You see, totally safe. Seriously, it is Minecraft obsidian after all."

They slowly climbed over the edge and climbed down even slower. They were all standing on the black volcanic glass, the lava gave out a dim light through the obsidian, which made it glow mysteriously.

Fire said in a quiet voice, almost whispering: "Alright, here is the plan. We poke a hole into the obsidian and jump in."

Ambigious interrupted: "Jumping into lava?"

"The bag Brad gave me, there are Fire Resistance potions in there. We jump into the lava and swim down, just follow me, the potion also provides us with energy so we don't have to breathe, it also makes us able to see in the lava. It is pretty hard to brew."

With these words he gave everyone a diamond pickaxe.

"We will make a large hole, as if the obsidian collapsed, then we will drink the potions and jump in, there is a Nether portal at the bottom, we will swim through that."

Nobody asked a question, they were just swinging their pickaxes at the obsidian, too focused to even think about anything else, it was still hard work and they had to watch out for a real obsidian collapse. The obsidian made a high pitched bling every time a pick hit it, suddenly a loud crack came from the center of the obsidian.

"To the sides, quick!" Fire shouted.

The obsidian started falling into the lava, a hole formed in the middle and was rapidly growing, they jumped just in time before the lava would have swallowed them.

"Phew, that was close." Unchosen said.

freeZe demanded: "Okay, we'll need those potions now."

Fire searched his inventory for the bag and fished out five potions, then packed the bag back into his inventory. The others had slowly come to Fire on the half meter strip of obsidian around the lava that was still left.

"One last thing, it is hard to combine so many different effects in one potion, and these are no simple effects. There may be some side effects while it kicks in, nothing dangerous though." Fire warned and added: "I will drink the first one and tell you if anything happens."

He gave the potions to them and drank his. The orange liquid was burning hot, or at least it felt like lava running down his throat. Once in his stomach, the liquid partially turned into a yellow gas, which came out of Fire's nose and mouth and also got into his lungs. Fire felt how the gas dispersed in his lungs and at the same time his eyes started feeling strange. His vision blurred out, Fire made a step towards the wall and leaned against it. A few seconds later his vision went normal again, only he could see even better than he could normally. His body shook for a few seconds, then Fire didn't feel the burning heat radiating from the lava anymore, he only felt warmth all inside his body.

"Are you… Okay?" TehLulz asked.

Fire answered: "Not many side effects, Brad did a good job. It only feels like drinking lava in the first few seconds, also support yourself on the wall, your vision will be blurry for a short time."

"Okay, if that is all, let's drink on our victory!" Said Ambigious and emptied his bottle in one go and regretted doing so a second later as the liquid ran down his throat. Everyone else also drank, a minute later they all were completely immune to the lava.

freeZe counted down without asking anyone: "Three, two, one… jump!" They jumped into the molten rock, hoping Brad did the potion right and they wouldn't get fried instantly. They felt the lava enclosing them…


	10. Chapter 9

It was strange being encased in lava and not dying or even feeling its heat, not needing to breathe and drawing all energy required from the molten rock itself. Fire had used Fire Resistance potions very often but after over a year without them he was surprised by not being hurt but not nearly as much as the others who in general had never fallen in lava. In the first second they panicked and tried to swim back to the surface, but then they remembered that they had the potion and relaxed.

They could see as well as if they were underwater, only with a red tint. Fire gave them a sign to follow him and began swimming downwards with powerful movements of arms and legs but then remembered that the others still had to learn how to navigate the dense fluid. He slowed down and looked out for obsidian, he didn't see any. As soon as freeZe, TehLulz, Ambigious and Unchosen had caught up to him he started swimming downwards slowly, always looking for the black volcanic glass.

Suddenly Fire heard something and wildly gesticulated to tell the others to move away from the middle. The lava rumbled and vibrated. In the deep, just at the edge of Fire's vision huge bubbles of gas came up out of the depths of the volcano, shooting up very quickly and pushing a wave of magma up to the crater. As it passed by it almost smashed them against the wall. If someone would have been in the middle they would have been thrown out of the volcano, hitting the ground with no chance of survival. After the current had slowed Fire gave the others a sign to continue and took the lead again.

Hundreds of meters and half an hour later Fire spotted a small black and purple rectangle. He signaled to hurry and swum downwards faster. The next thing he felt was the sinister aura of the portal, it was no good feeling like the aura of diamonds but he had gotten used to it since he had all kinds of magic going on in his base.

They were only a few meters away from the purple portal, Fire gave the others a sign to stop, then he swam towards the portal and went inside it. As Fire entered it he felt a slight resistance since the portal wasn't completely fluid. The insides of the volcano began spinning before his eyes and then he blacked out.

He woke up on the other side of the portal, he was not tired in any way and started observing his environment. He stood in a small circular cavern with a man-made tunnel leading out into the main caverns of the Nether. The heat was enormous. The next one to come out was TehLulz. Ambigious, Unchosen and freeZe came followed, still a bit dizzy.

As Fire saw that they were fully there again, he asked: "Do you have any combat experience?"

freeZe answered: "Yes."

A double "No" came from TehLulz and Unchosen.

Ambigious answered last: "Not really. I got into fights once or twice, or ten dozen times if you count those with freeZe."

Fire answered: "Okay, that will make it somewhat more difficult. I'll tell you the strategies for the mobs in here. So, the pigmen are dangerous because of their speed and their swords, but just ignore them, you know how it is. The magma cubes are a little more difficult, you can just stomp the tiny ones but for medium and large I would recommend dodging and throwing rocks at them, without a blade of any kind you pretty much can't deal damage. The ghasts… I think you know how to handle those. But be careful, you should kick the fireballs back instead of punching them or it will hurt. If you see a blaze or a wither skeleton, tell me."

Unchosen asked: "Okay, where do we need to go?"

Fire was walking into the tunnel and said: "Come, I will show you when we are outside."

The tunnel was narrow and the heat coming from the netherrack was insane, the rock was rough but not jagged so it was surprisingly comfortable to walk on, even without shoes. As they stepped outside of the tunnel, a panorama opened up before them.

They were standing in a lower section of the Nether, the lava sea was just a few meters away and more lava was pouring down from the ceiling onto the overhangs above them. Zombie pigmen were wandering around on the netherrack, ghasts were flying high up on the ceiling, always letting out their sad cries and moans. The whole scenery was dramatically illuminated by the yellow, sun bright light of glowstone crystals hanging from the ceiling, the eternal fires on the netherrack and by the lava sea from beneath, leaving little room for shadows. In the distance, they could see a Nether Fortress towering in the middle of the lava lake, giving it an even more sinister look than it would have had normally. Blazes, zombie pigmen and wither skeletons were patrolling the buildings and bridges made of the dark red nether bricks.

freeZe poked Fire in the shoulder and said: "Fire, why are you shimmering?"

After she said that everyone else, including Fire, noticed that Fire's scales were shimmering in the darkest of blacks like the shell of an insect.

Fire said: "The lava burnt away the dust and dirt from the year in the quarry, this is how my scales look normally."

Ambigious laughed. "Nice! Let's go!"

Fire took the lead once again, going up the hill to their left and explained the route he wanted to follow: "We will go on the left side of the lava sea and then cross a lava river, then we will go into that Nether Fortress over there, I have some friends living in there, somewhat weird but nice people."

freeZe answered while climbing up the hill: "Very strange friends you have there, living in a Nether Fortress with all those mobs…"

Fire chuckled: "I know right, you all will have a little shock when you see them I can imagine. Have I ever told you about the Wither cult?"

Ambigious replied: "No, you haven't."

Fire grinned. "Okay, then I won't spoil your surprise."

* * *

They were halfway up the hill as they heard a scream different from the usual ambient ghast noises. Suddenly a fireball impacted five meters to their right, setting some more fires.

"Up the hill!" Fire yelled.

They climbed the hill more quickly now, which was not easy with the boiling heat around them, at the top was a small platform. Fire stopped at the very front and signaled the others to continue running. Fire noticed that the ghast shooting them was pretty big compared to the others, it seemed to be an alpha ghast of sorts.

The ghast breathed in with its tentacles swirling through the air and shot a bolt of compact flames at Fire. Everything slowed down, he was about to try something very risky but if it worked, it would help then throughout the rest of the journey through the Nether. The fireball now was only five meters in front of Fire, he formed a bowl with his hands towards the fireball, shielding his face and put one foot back to support him. The projectile hit Fire's hands with force, it didn't explode.

It pushed Fire backwards over the rough netherrack, someone without Fire's resistant scales would have had the skin on their feet torn off. The fireball decreased in speed quickly until it stopped and stayed afloat in mid-air. Fire was surprised that he actually stopped the fireball but the ghast was at least twice as surprised. It made a confused face, which turned to respect and then to terror, it floated away screaming loudly. The others carefully walked towards Fire, who was cooling his hands

freeZe asked Fire: "This is enormously good or terribly bad, right?"

Without answering Fire asked: "Did anybody keep their bottle?"

"Yeah, I kept it." Unchosen said and handed it to Fire, so did everybody else.

Fire thanked them and walked over to the orb of fire still floating there.

"Err, what do you want to do?" TehLulz asked.

Fire replied short: "Bottle it."

He stuck the neck of one bottle into the fireball, to everyone's surprise it started pouring into the bottle, filling it up. He corked the bottle again and filled up the other bottles.

"What can you use that stuff for?" Ambigious asked with an interested voice.

"I really don't know, I will have to try it out." Fire answered and added: "Let's go, we need to get to the fortress."

He took the snowball sized fireball that was left and carried it in his hand. They started walking again.


	11. Chapter 10

"Fire, I am so thirsty." freeZe complained.

Fire answered: "We will have something to drink in the fortress… Wait, don't we have water buckets?"

Ambigious moaned: "Oh yes we do, why didn't we think of them earlier, freeZe is about to collapse."

freeZe talked back: "No I am not! But I could use some water."

Fire handed freeZe his water bucket, she tilted it and drank a quarter of the water inside.

She asked: "Anybody else need water?"

The others raised their hands. freeZe passed the bucket on to Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen, who emptied it completely.

"Everybody ready again?" Fire asked and packed the bucket into his inventory.

They started walking again. They were about half way to the fortress, the ghasts had left them alone since Fire caught the fireball. They walked pretty slowly because they wanted to save water and energy.

The scenery had changed quite a bit since they exited the tunnel, they were higher up now, which had advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages was having to avoid lava rivers all the time. One of the advantages was having a way better view than from below, the fortress was now completely visible and it was huge. Some of the bridges went into the reddish-pink rock, it was possible that a lot of the structure was inside the netherrack.

Suddenly they heard a strange sound, a slap and a slurp a second later.

"Uh-Oh, that doesn't sound very good." TehLulz stated.

He was right, a huge magma cube was hopping towards them, revealing its fiery core with every jump.

Fire closed his eyes, opened his inventory and pulled a diamond pickaxe onto his hotbar with his thoughts, it was in his hand right hand after he opened his eyes again, the fireball still was in his left hand.

He started digging a hole and called the others: "Get in there! It can't reach you as long as it is that big!"

He didn't have to say that twice, in a chaos of hands and feet freeZe, Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen disappeared in the hole, Fire stayed out of it. He switched to another slot of his hotbar and put the fireball in his right hand.

"So you want to eat us? How about you chew on this?" Fire yelled and threw the fireball at the cube, which was in the middle of a jump.

Fire had aimed the fireball a bit under it so it would hit it in mid-air. The fireball left a burning hot trail behind it and made a nasty ear wrecking whistling and howling noise like some fireworks do. The fireball hit the magma cube right between the strips of half-liquid magma, which were like a spring, making it able to jump.

The fireball exploded with a bright flash right at the molten core in the center of the cube as it hit the ground. It stopped with its red eyes rolling wildly, it didn't have enough surface tension to stay in its form. It liquefied without any warning, forming a puddle on the ground. Fire jumped back shortly before the puddle reached his feet. Three smaller but still two meter tall replica of the magma cube rose out of the puddle.

They made a big leap and surrounded Fire before he could react. He extended the claws on his hands, they wouldn't help him much in the battle but it was better than punching the cubes. He attacked the cube closest to him, which was about to leap. Fire's claws cut through it, doing some damage but the magma core in its center flared up, liquefying the wounded part and making it grow together again. Fire knew that the other two were about to land on him. He jumped forward and tried to roll like in the arena. The netherrack however was much rougher and more solid than the sand in the arena, the roll wasn't fluent and didn't get him far but he got on his feet again at the end.

"Out of the hole!" He yelled and ducked under an incoming cube.

Their circle now was closer than before but the eyes of the one cube he hit were a little bit dimmer than the other's. Fire attacked the same cube again, this time with both hands, slashing down on it diagonally and again, the core flared up and healed the wound. The second cube landed next to Fire and the third one remained in his position.

"Eat this!" A voice yelled, apparently Ambigious, a big chunk of netherrack hit the cube which had landed next to Fire.

Fire took a quick look over to the rest of the group, they all had picked up rocks and bombarded the cubes with them just like he had told them when they entered the Nether. The cubes absorbed the netherrack, instantly turning it into lava with a flash of their core and using it to grow.

freeZe said half loud: "Oops, that is not good."

Fire dodged the third cube, which almost landed on top of him, jumped again, this time without a roll and stood up, just to dodge the second and third cube that were following him, the first one seemed to be slowing down.

"Keep throwing, it cools their cores!" Fire yelled.

He cut his claws right through the second cube a couple of times, forcing it to sacrifice more of its temperature to repair itself. The third cube made a giant leap in the air, Fire stepped aside. Fire saw, that the first cube's core was almost not glowing anymore, a split second later the second cube landed on him with its full weight, knocking him to the ground. Fire saw stars for a second and when his senses were there again, he noticed that the cube had swallowed him, a moment later he felt the burning heat of lava at his skin, half of his body was stuck inside the core, the cube wasn't moving and tried to keep Fire inside.

Fire struggled but couldn't get free. The other three noticed that Fire was stuck inside the cube but couldn't do anything. Fire thought he heard freeZe screaming but wasn't sure since his head was stuck in the cube. His skin was resistant to heat but only up to a certain degree. Smoke started radiating from the core and the horrible smell of burning scales filled the air. Fire tried to think of a plan, everything slowed down again, which gave him a bit more time to do so, however the pain was preventing him from forming a clear thought.

All he could do was an instinctual reaction, he extended his claws at feet and hands and started to struggle like a cat that had been picked up against its will. His claws cut through the cube, making it cool down rapidly but also with every flash of the core the pain all over Fire's body increased. He wondered why he wasn't dead yet. After painfully long twenty seconds the heat dropped below the level where it could harm Fire or fix the wounds of the cube. He cut his way out of his once fiery prison, which liquefied right after he crawled out of the thick semi liquid stone. Fire stood up using the strength he had left, a feeling of triumph filled his body and drove the pain away. The others had done a good job at killing the first and third cube, they had shrunk to their minimal size and were being stomped by Ambigious, TehLulz and freeZe. Unchosen ran over to Fire, who had sunken to the ground devitalized. When the others were done killing the remaining cubes, they also ran over to Fire.

freeZe said in concern: "You look terrible!"

Fire in fact looked terrible, half of his coat was charred, the scales on his head and torso were deformed and he had smaller burns all over his body.

He answered in a weak voice: "I don't know how I am even alive… we need to get to the fortress quickly, just give me a few minutes to rest."

They sat down next to Fire saying nothing, their silence only got interrupted by a huge chunk of netherrack falling down from the ceiling into the lava lake, causing a huge tsunami of lava to surge the coast, pulling in pigmen and magma cubes as it flew back again.

"Pretty impressive place, the Nether…" Unchosen whispered.

"But also very dangerous." TehLulz added.

"No beauty without danger, it is like this everywhere." Fire said.

The sentence made Ambigious chuckle.

He said: "Right, freeZe? No beauty without danger, many people experienced that…"

She replied, smiling: "Stop it."


	12. Chapter 11

Even though he was tired and wounded Fire stood up after some time and said: "Come on, let's go. The fortress is just over there."

He pointed at the fortress, which really was not that far away anymore, he couldn't see any obstacles on the way there. freeZe, Ambigious, Unchosen and TehLulz stood up and followed Fire who had gone ahead, although a slower pace than usual. The terrain was flat and easy to walk on, which felt a little wrong after all the difficulties they had faced.

"Fire, I need to ask you one thing." Unchosen said.

"Go ahead." Fire answered.

Unchosen asked his question: "How are the hackers keeping up with the simulation speed of the server?"

Fire scratched his chin and replied: "That is in fact a good question, I don't really have an answer for it, only assumptions. I think they are logged in with their computer but also with their brain like every other player. They are using their computer client to control their powers. It also seems that this indirect connection gives them some manner of protection from the server's security mechanisms."

"That is quite smart!" freeZe said.

Fire didn't immediately respond: "They are smart, smart is an understatement actually, they are highly intelligent, which is why they even got this far in the first place. But I suspect that there are only a few masterminds and a lot of smaller fish. They are also operating in a completely unknown environment."

freeZe asked: "Why aren't they just taking the code? They want a simulator to sell to those military types. They can train here as well, it's realistic enough, right?"

Fire smiled but the smile had a bitter aspect, he said: "Minecraft still imposes limits on what the software can do, they need the software in its pure form."

"Pure form?"

Fire explained: "The software's pure form is what allows free data transfer between the brain and the computer. You may even be able to digitalize a personality, in theory at least, the admins never tried it since we lack powerful enough hardware. The version of the software running on this server is bound to Minecraft, which imposes some serious limits on what it can do. Without those limits, the possibilities for both helpful and destructive applications are basically infinite. Help people with mental disorders, kill them with a touch, you name it."

In sudden realization about the importance of their mission they stopped.

TehLulz said slowly: "So if we fail, the army gets the software and eventually some crazy person will use it to wipe out or enslave humanity?"

Fire answered: "And even if it gets used for good, testing isn't finished. It works in the context of this server but there are many other things that could go wrong."

Unchosen wanted to know: "How do you manage to keep that calm? We are responsible for all of humanity!"

Fire put on his bitter smile again and replied: "If we fail, we will die and won't have to see the world break. It is cruel but it is true, if we succeed we keep the software secure, if we fail the world gets access to something it is not ready for. It is everything or nothing, no compromises."

They all felt the responsibility on their shoulders and remained on the same spot until Fire demanded: "Come on, we are almost there, it won't help the world if we stand here."

"That is true, let's go!" freeZe said with a bit more enthusiasm than intended.

* * *

Ambigious jumped down onto the dark red brick first, freeZe followed, they helped Fire climb down, then Unchosen and TehLulz jumped after them.

"Where to go now?" Ambigious wanted to know.

Fire told him: "Just follow me, I'll lead you there." Then added: "Be careful, the blazes aren't nice here."

They were standing right in front of the dark tunnel that the bridge came out of. The bridge they were standing on was very high up and broken at some parts. It went to a big block of nether brick with maze-like corridors in it. Fire started walking towards the building, the others followed.

Their feet made loud noises on the dark red brick, which had a lot of empty space in it that amplified their steps. They slowly progressed towards the building, always looking out for brittle bricks or holes in the bridge. At about half of the way there was a big brittle section exactly in the middle between two pillars.

Fire stopped and tested the bridge with one foot, it gave out some strange noises but it didn't break.

"I will jump over and you follow one by one." Fire stated.

He went back a few steps, ran towards the brittle part and leaped right over it, his landing was not as elegant as usual, he struggled not to fall on his nose.

Fire turned around and said: "Okay, TehLulz, you first, then Ambigious, then Unchosen, then freeZe!"

"Why am I last?" freeZe complained

Fire replied: "Least risk of breaking the weakened bridge."

Everything worked fine for TehLulz and Ambigious but just after Unchosen was safe, a part of the bricks broke out and fell into the lava.

"Great." freeZe moaned.

She ran over the brittle part and saved herself with a jump just before the rest of the bricks fell down.

"Okay, so I assume that we'll go in there now?" Unchosen asked.

Fire nodded and started walking again.

It was very dark inside the building, they barely could see their own hands in front of their faces. Ambigious had taken his sunglasses off, with them he would be blind like a mole. Some light got in from through the barred windows. They occasionally came across a lava well, the only bright source of light inside the fortress. With the darkness and the corridors, which were apparently built without a system, it was very easy to get lost. Fire seemed to know the way as if he walked it every day, his glowing eyes helped the group follow him. Suddenly they heard a strange sound, like a breath, only with a metallic tone and it sounded as if the one breathing had a hard time doing it.

"Blazes!" Fire warned and asked: "Do you know why blazes are covered in smoke or fire most of the time?" He gave the answer himself. "Because they want to hide something, their blaze core, an eternal fire burning in their center, it is a crystalline piece of metal as far as I know, it keeps the rods and the head in place with a magnetic field. Without it they will just fall apart. It is one of the best ingredients for Fire Resistance and Strength potions, much better than blaze powder."

Unchosen said: "Sounds interesting, but what does it have to do with our situation now?"

Fire raised his index finger as a sign that they should be quiet. The breaths sounded pretty near.

"It is only one blaze, I can deal with that. Now answering your question, if I can come close enough to rip it out quickly enough, it will lose its connection to the head and die… And I only have ever had one of those things, I need a few more or at least one for brewing." Fire said and then added: "Follow me quietly, take care where you step!"

Fire walked towards the exit in a ducked position, the blaze was right outside but it was facing away from them, no smoke was coming from its center as it didn't see itself in danger. Between its rods was the blaze core, a rotating ball of a red-golden material. On further observation it was not really a ball, it was a crystalline structure, a glow radiated from it, but not the glow of light, it was the glow of energy.

Fire felt the energy and took a deep breath, the last time he had fought a blaze without weapons had been a long time ago. Technically they couldn't hurt him with their fireballs but their rotating rods could break bones when coming too close. Fire signaled the others to stay behind and slowly walked towards the blaze, which was now only a few meters in front of him. At the worst time a zombie pigman squeaked for no apparent reason and drew the blazes attention. Unfortunately the pigman was on top of the building Fire just came out of.

The blaze noticed him instantly, smoke and then fire started to radiate from the blaze core, also catching the blaze rods on fire and turning the blaze into a small tornado of flames. Fire let go all stealth and sprinted towards the blaze as quickly as he could. The blaze managed to float up just before Fire could reach it.

The flames started condensing around its upper rods, forming fireballs around them. With an almost elegant spin of its rods it threw a barrage of five fireballs at Fire. He just felt a little bit of warmth where the fireballs hit him, his clothes were made out of fire resistant cloth so they didn't get any more ruined than they already were.

The blaze realized that it wouldn't have much success with ranged attacks and dove down on Fire from the air with its rods spinning faster now. Fire ducked under the attack and extended his claws, with high pitched sounds the rods collided with them. While the blaze was busy blocking the claw attacks from Fire's right hand, his left hand had gone down under the lower rods and now was only a few centimeters away from the blaze core. By the time the blaze realized what was going on, it already was too late. Fire held the core in his hands. The rods fell down to the ground and the head exploded into a small fireball.

Fire walked over to the others with the pulsating core in hand, he said: "As you might have observed, the mobs are a lot smarter and harder to kill here."

TehLulz only said one word in agreement: "Cube."

Ambigious was about to say something but then suddenly twisted his eyes upwards, dropped his shades and pressed his hands against his chest. He coughed as if he couldn't breathe, then he fell over, where freeZe and Unchosen caught him. About two meters behind where he used to stand now was a tall creature, not as tall as Fire but only one and a half heads shorter, it looked like a humanoid skeleton only with pitch black bones.

The skeletal creature was holding a sword in its hand, pulsating with a black aura, the sword didn't seem sharp but caused a feeling of fear in the group. freeZe looked down on her brother and noticed that the black aura also was present around his chest, particularly where his heart was. As she realized what happened, she ran, dragging her brother and an a bit traumatized Unchosen away from the wither skeleton.

Fire had positioned himself in his full size in front of the group, he said: "Haven't seen you in a long time…"


	13. Chapter 12

The wither skeleton opened its mouth and spoke, its voice was like five voices speaking at the same time in different pitches and each slightly offset from the others. The voice sounded somewhat male, just as male as the voice of an undead creature could sound.

It said: "True, Fire. We have not seen each other in a long time."

"You know him?" freeZe asked.

Without answering Fire continued talking to the wither skeleton: "They are my friends, take the wither from him now." Fire said it in a calm but demanding voice.

The skeletal creature nodded and raised its sword, a thin string of the black aura on the sword connected to the black aura on Ambigious' chest, pulling it towards the sword again.

Ambigious stopped coughing and stood up.

He asked: "Where are my sunglasses?"

freeZe looked at him and said: "You almost just died and all you ask for are your sunglasses?"

"Yeah, where are they?" He asked.

He turned around and jumped back a few steps as he saw the wither skeleton holding them towards him. He realized that it was not dangerous anymore. He took them and put them on again.

Fire explained: "May I introduce Matt to you, he and two other Wither cultists live in this fortress. He is another player." He paused and pointed at one of his friends after the other: "This is freeZe… that is Ambigious, her brother… this is Unchosen and that is TehLulz."

Matt spoke again: "Sorry for that incident before, I thought that you four were here to kill us for our skulls, you know how it is, an honest mistake. Follow me, I will lead you to where we live. And Fire, your bow is done."

"That's good to hear. Come on, let's go." Fire answered.

"You have friends all over the place, Fire." TehLulz said.

Matt laughed, which sounded like a small group of people laughing in an uncanny choir, which sounded creepy more than anything else. "Yes he does."

* * *

"…and then Matt almost killed me." Ambigious concluded his story.

They were sitting in a circular room in the middle of the netherrack pillar the fortress was built into, the room had everything you needed to live and a few additional things like brewing stands, an anvil and even an enchanting table surrounded by bookshelves. Ceiling and floor were made of nether brick, although some stone brick was mixed into it, nether brick fences supported the room and in the middle was a fireplace made from obsidian fueled by blaze powder. Fire, his friends and three wither skeletons were sitting around the fireplace. Matt was one of the skeletons, one other one's name was Chris, the last one's name was Bea. They just had told them why they came here and how, the Wither cultists had listened.

"Now I want to ask a question." freeZe said and then asked said question: "What is this whole Wither cult thing?"

Bea looked at freeZe and started explaining in a voice much like the one from Matt and Chris but more feminine sounding: "As you might know, the admins are very friendly and kind people, we asked them if there was a way to actually be a mob, they told us that only humanoid mobs could be controlled by our brain at the moment, different bodies and such."

freeZe asked: "So everybody can become a wither skeleton?"

"Yes, all you have to do is fall into lava while being affected by the wither status effect. Now for the cult, we have made our own religion out of this, there are more of us in other fortresses. Everything is based on that what can really happen here. We worship the Wither, it visits this dimension sometimes on its own or gets summoned, the one who manages to defeat it in battle gets the Nether Star, what you can do with that you know already." She explained.

Chris stood up and left the room without saying anything.

"Where is he going?" Unchosen asked.

Matt answered: "Don't know, maybe he is fetching something?"

Then he said to Fire: "I wanted to give you a regeneration potion but I see you already have one in you."

Fire scratched his chin and said: "That actually might be true if you say so, I will have to ask Brad what he put in that potion. It didn't get removed by the portal, very interesting… I haven't managed to do that for regeneration yet."

This moment Chris came back in, holding bow in his hands.

"Right, my bow. Let me see it." Fire said.

Chris handed the bow to him. It no ordinary bow, it had a different shape than a regular bow and much more decorated. It was made out of something that seemed to be ghast bones dyed black. Ghast bones were very flexible and didn't deform over time. The bow had red ornaments and runes carved into the bone. The bowstring was made from a red material, a very durable cloth made from nether wart. This material called nether wool was very versatile, it could be used for bowstrings but also for making clothes of very high quality, which were fireproof in addition to being very durable and comfortable. If a king would have to choose out of what material his clothes should be made of, he would definitely choose nether wool.

Overall the bow looked much like bows elves used in various books and movies and was about half Fire's height. Fire rotated it and looked at the red runes on the black bow, let his finger slide along the bones, pulled back the string with ease and let go, the bones snapped back into place, more violently than any normal bow made out of wood would, propelling an imaginary arrow.

"It is better than I ever thought it would be, I didn't think you would be able to recreate my old bow." He said, then asked: "As far as I can feel, it is not enchanted and free of magic, right?"

Matt answered: "Yes, we didn't even use any magic at all when collecting the components."

"Why is it so important when it is free of magic?" Ambigious asked.

Fire chuckled and replied: "I can only tell you one thing. Magical artefacts that don't have an internal power source drain the energy of the user to fuel their magic and you can't turn that off. If you want to know more about how magic works in here, you are at the wrong place asking me, I only know the theoretical aspects of magic. You should ask my sister when we meet her if you want some more in depth information, she is a mage. Though, simply calling her a mage might be selling her a bit short."

"She also is here? I thought she doesn't play on the server?" freeZe asked.

"I didn't say that she isn't here, the hackers just don't know that she exists. She is running our base at the moment." Fire explained.

Unchosen, who hadn't said very much yet, asked Bea: "What benefits did you get from being a wither skeleton?"

You couldn't see it but in fact she was smiling, she said: "First of all, the benefits you get from being undead and of Nether origin, not having to eat or drink and being completely fireproof. Then having our own little source of Wither energy is another benefit." She looked at Ambigious "We can use it to defend ourselves or to hunt, whatever we want. Now the most important benefit, you know how Fire feels energy flow? Well, we can feel it too, more than that even. We can see how much energy is in something, kind of like a filter we can put over our vision, we see everything violet and the more powerful something is, the more it goes to red and then white. We can also see if somebody is ill or has something in their body that normally isn't there, like a potion."

Matt added: "I didn't look exactly but when I saw you there was quite a bit of energy between the four of you."

Completely leaving the topic, Ambigious asked: "Okay, what's for dinner?"

Chris chuckled with his quintuple voice and said: "Man, why didn't we think of that earlier. You all must be starving, especially you Ambigious, wither makes hungry."

With these words he stood up again, this time to get some food.

He came back about ten minutes later with a stone plate with steaming steaks on it. freeZe poked TehLulz and Ambigious.

"That is the first time we're eating meat after months of bread, eggs and apples!" She said to them, it was easy to hear that also she had missed eating meat.

Fire grinned, the first time since they met Fire they heard him speak in a voice free of worry or tension: "I escaped the quarry, I now have a real chance to stop the hackers. We made it here alive, I got my bow and now I can eat some meat after a whole year without it, I can finally worry a little less now."

He leaned back a little and took a huge bite of the steak that Chris had given him.

Silence filled the room, only interrupted by the sounds they made while eating. Eating was not the right word, stuffing the steak into themselves would fit better. Ambigious ate three steaks in record time, so did TehLulz and Unchosen, freeZe ate two and a half, which was a lot for her. Fire put the crown on top, he ate five steaks and the half that freeZe didn't eat. They all leaned back satisfied and slowly fell asleep.

The last thing they heard was Chris saying: "Wow! And I thought I could eat quickly…"

Bea laughed.


	14. Chapter 13

As usual, Fire was the first one to wake up, the cultists had left the room and the plate where the steaks used to be on was gone. His wounds were completely healed by regeneration potion that was still coursing inside him, his scales were still deformed but there was no way around that without a stronger potion. Fire decided to let the others sleep and took a closer look at the room he was in, he hadn't been here in a while. There were brewing stands on one wall, an enchanting table and some bookshelves on the other one, hidden behind a tunnel. The third wall had the entrance in it and the last wall had what he was looking for, a cauldron filled with water. He walked over to it and formed a bowl with his hands and drank a bit of water to get rid of his thirst.

"Not the best water in the world, but better than the stuff in the quarry." He commented.

Fire walked back to the spot he slept on, just to sit there and look at the fireplace for a few minutes. He was thinking about what to do next, he had a rough outline for his plan but he had to add in the details when the time came… And the time had come, the time to plan in detail, how to get to his base the fastest and the safest, with the first one having priority.

First they would have to leave the Nether, then there was the glacier. They had to climb the icy mountains and get down on the other side. Fire took a deep breath, the air smelled a bit like sulfur, what else would you expect from a hellish world? Then there was a smell, humans couldn't detect, it was the smell of blaze powder burning in the fireplace, it was a little spicy but also sweet in a strange way. The smell reminded him of something, he still had to activate and infuse the blaze core. He closed his eyes and moved it to his hotbar with his thoughts, then when he opened his eyes again, he was holding it in his right hand.

Fire went over to the enchanting table and ducked to get through the hallway, which was a little too low for him. As he approached the table, the book laying on it magically opened and fragments of knowledge started flowing towards the table from the bookshelves. The books were mostly red, some black ones were there too, rarely blue and yellow and only a single green one. This enchanting table was specialized for black magic and harmful or sinister enchantments, exactly what Fire needed for the infusion of the blaze core.

He put the glowing crystalline core on top of the book, from where it floated up. Fire cleared his throat and collected his thoughts, he focused on the core and began speaking the words which guided the magic. They were no regular words, no ordinary combinations of letters, may they be random or not. It was no language, not in the traditional sense, the words were just an instrument to guide the energy, they were not even words, just sounds. You could only feel the air vibrating and hear a sound with varying pitches, sometimes low, sometimes high, sometimes everything at once.

A shockwave went through the semi-transparent runes coming from the books, they stopped going into the table and then slowly focused on the blaze core, which had started spinning. At first, Fire's voice was not audible because it had a frequency lower than the human ear could detect. But even if you couldn't hear it, it had an effect on the knowledge bits, they arranged in a complicated grid, some flew back to their books and some more came out of books that hadn't given out any before. Suddenly the vibration in the air stopped, Fire had rapidly changed his voice to ultrasonic, making the fragments shiver and arrange to different figures. That was the method of determining, what "words" had to be used to infuse the now rapidly spinning core with magic. The fragments now formed a three dimensional star-like shape around the core, exactly what Fire wanted, the base position was reached, he could start with the difficult part.

Fire started speaking in the "language" of enchanting, a strange mix of sounds with all kinds of different frequencies and volumes. The fragments started rotating and coming closer to the core but seemed to be held back by an invisible barrier, Fire increased the amount of low frequencies with high volume and completely stopped the high frequencies. The fragments arranged in packets, similar symbols together. Fire changed his voice again, making the symbols transform, merge and split, modifying the enchantment. The changes in his voice became more rapid as he needed to react to every tiny symbol trying to leave its place.

One or two minutes later he had arranged the symbols in seven stable spheres, rotating around the core, connected by small strings of symbols. Now he only had to add some of his energy to activate the enchantment. He raised his hands and changed his voice to a very loud and deep sound that rumbled through the enchanting room. He felt how the energy inside of him searched for an exit.

He made his voice a little quieter but maintained the pitch, decreasing the force with which he was pulling the energy towards the spheres, then he suddenly stopped. Fire started glowing in a rainbow-colored light from the energy that had made it through his skin. It slowly got pulled towards his hands, forming two spheres, which met between his raised hands, combining into a big one. With a sudden blast of his voice he threw the ball of energy towards the runes floating in the air, it distributed evenly in the spheres. Fire concentrated and started the enchanting process with his thoughts.

One after the other, the runes flew towards the core but stopped just short of its surface, creating a glow, which evolved into a bright light as more and more runes orbited the core. When all the symbols were at the core, the light stopped. Fire hoped that he didn't do anything wrong, this was his second try on activating a blaze core and this time the enchantment was fundamentally different. Experimental enchanting was not an exact science. Just as he wanted to reach for the core and take it away, a bright flash of light, an explosion almost, came from the core, blinding Fire and creating a loud high-pitched sound in his ears, he got knocked off his feet.

* * *

"Fire?" A voice asked "Are you okay?"

Fire couldn't identify who exactly was speaking but it definitely was none of the cultists, neither was it freeZe. The white fog in front of his eyes slowly cleared and he stood up, hitting his head on the ceiling of the tunnel. TehLulz was standing in front of him, smiling.

"How long have I been out?" Fire asked.

"I don't think it was that long, I woke up from a strange sound and this explosion, then I saw you on the floor there." TehLulz replied.

"Ah, I see." Fire said and turned around.

The core was still floating above the enchanting table but it was glowing more intensely and little sparks radiated from it.

"It worked." He said and picked the core up.

"What worked?" TehLulz asked in a confused manner.

"I reactivated the blaze core using some energy."

"Wow, I want to learn enchanting…"

"I can teach you. When we are in my base, we will be there for quite some time until your armor sets are done and all the other preparations are complete." Fire promised.

"What is the difference between an active and an inactive blaze core?" TehLulz wanted to know.

Fire walked out of the room, sitting down at the fireplace again, Ambigious, freeZe and Unchosen were still sleeping.

"Hmm…" Fire said "I think that you should really learn enchanting, you have a sense for the energy waves, that is why only you woke up…" He speculated and answered the question he was asked: "An active blaze core can serve as a catalyst for powerful fire based magic."

"That sounds amazing." TehLulz said and asked another question: "But if I learn enchanting, how will I reach those frequencies, I heard some strange sounds, were those your voice?"

Fire explained: "You will learn that at my base, it involves some kind of meditation. Most enchantments aren't this complex either, this one had hundreds of runes assembled in a very complicated manner, for general-purpose enchantments you normally don't need more than twenty unassembled runes."

"That's good, it must have taken you quite some time to figure all that stuff out…"

"True. But now, let's wake the others up." Fire said.

* * *

A few hours later, they were ready to go. Matt showed them the way to their portal, it was a very pretty portal situated on a little pyramid of sandstone and nether brick, the obsidian was chiseled and had runes on it, primarily for decoration but some of them actually had an effect, for example ones that prevented blacking out, making it far quicker transition.

"Here is the bag with the clothes, Fire." Matt said and handed Fire a bag made from nether wool.

"What is so special about those bags, Fire? Brad also gave you one." freeZe asked.

"They hide what is inside, the hackers can view our player data, which means what we have in our inventory. The thing about that is that things inside the bag won't be displayed, so it just shows a bag." Fire explained, already walking towards the portal.

Fire then said: "Okay, I will explain everything else while we walk, thanks for everything Matt."

With these words he walked up the stairs to the portal and took a deep breath. He touched the purple magical semi-liquid with his right hand, then walked into the portal. He felt how he got transported over to the Overworld again, at the edge of his perception he noticed the others going into the portal.


	15. Chapter 14

Jack logged out of the server and closed down Minecraft, the first thing he noticed were his hunger and thirst, he had been on the server for a real-time day straight and he was well aware of that. Jack pushed his chair away from the three-monitor setup on his desk. He stood up and stretched, it was like having slept for a day. Actually, his body had slept for a day just not in his bed, he had slept in the chair in front of his monitors while he was on the server.

The first thing he did after standing up was going into the room next to his computer room, the kitchen, where he drank a bit of water and ate three pieces of the bread he had prepared before going on the server. After he was done eating, he went back to his computer room and sat down again. Jack opened an application and called up Andreas, who answered the call immediately.

"Okay, what's up J?" Andreas asked.

"I just logged out, it is your shift now. I'll inform you about what happened. And let me tell you, a lot happened." Jack answered.

"I suppose not only good things happened?" Andreas assumed.

"Right. First of all, Fire escaped the quarry through the volcano. We don't know how yet but he's gone. freeZe60, TheUnchosenOne, Ambigious_Name and TehLulz9001 are also missing."

Jack could hear Andreas choke on something he must have been drinking.

"What?" He asked, still with a mouth half full of liquid.

"Yeah, they escaped. Also, the Shop Guy is out, he somehow got into a fight with Fire and lost."

"Q kicked him out because of that?" Andreas wondered.

"Nope, not because of that, Fire pointed out that that guy has some sort of mental issue, or multiple, Fire must know. It should be the truth as he was in a life or death situation at the time." Jack explained quickly.

"I see, I see… Fire is smart, we know that. This is probably part of some plan he has been cooking up while in the mine. Any idea where he is?"

"Nope, the player data says nothing about that, too bad that we don't see his coordinates or at least his dimension. But I suspect, that he is or was in the Nether because we found a portal inside the volcano, I still don't get how he managed to brew Fire Resistance pots in there or how else they got in there…"

"Did you send someone through the portal?" Andreas asked.

"Yeah, we did send some mercenaries, but… They ran into some weird wither skeleton dudes, they decayed to dust in seconds. At least that is what they said after respawning."

"Very strange, Fire escapes, the mercs are killed by wither skeletons, all that after that fight, how did he even win that?" Andreas wondered.

"He evaded the Shop Guy until he slipped up and finally killed him by slitting his throat, you know, between helmet and chestplate."

"Did anything else happen?" Andreas wanted to know.

Jack heard him taking another sip of whatever he was drinking.

"The Guy managed to get in a hit on Fire, almost killed him but one of his friends gave him a regen pot, then Q transported them to the quarry. When I think about it, that's probably where they got the potions from."

"Do you have any idea where he wants to go?" Asked Andreas.

"To his base I suppose. The bad thing is that we don't even know where that thing is and nobody, not even we with our hacks, can circumvent the tricks of the admins. You know, those skellies' Wither effect just ignores protection and everything else that could make you not die. I wouldn't be surprised if our god mode had no effect either."

"We need to patrol the server, I will wake up my bros, then we will search."

Jack said: "Why did he even try to escape if he has no way to possibly stop us… But wait, couldn't it be possible that the admins built in some kind of emergency backdoor? A lot of people do that."

"That is very true. The bad thing is that we don't have the slightest shadow of a clue to what it is, where it could be and how in the world we could get to it! Damn!"

Jack replied: "When you find him you can kill him with ease, you know, noclip on, godmode on, killaura on, you are unstoppable then. Hopefully."

"Who knows…" Muttered Andreas and then shouted over his back: "Hey, Bob, Jonathan! Get up, we are going on a Fire hunt!" He ended the call.

Jack had mixed feelings about Fire's escape, it would certainly be bad for the hacker group if he somehow managed to get them off the server, which was very unlikely, but possible. The other side was that he wouldn't be assigned boring guard shifts, now he had something else to do. He turned on the screens to the left and right of his middle screen. He had decompiled the code that the admins had written, it made absolutely no sense to him because of its immense complexity, Jack hadn't had any luck with finding out anything useful because he didn't have a point to start from. Until now.

Now he knew that Fire had to do something with this escape route that the admins had built in, he opened his browser on his right screen to find out Fire's UUID because it would be just too easy if his name would be directly in the code, that and it would be unreliable. A few minutes later he had the UUID and let his computer search for it in the files, the progress bar started slowly creeping towards the right but it wouldn't be done any time soon.

He put Fire's player data on his middle screen, maybe he could find out something from that. After staring at the numbers for a minute, he looked over to the search bar, it had only moved three pixels. He looked back at the player data: X, Y and Z velocity, health level, hunger level and so on, most didn't work properly, the velocities were among the few that did. Fire's Y velocity was significantly higher than the other ones.

"Hmm, he could be climbing a ladder but I doubt that any ladder is that tall…"

Then he knew it, Fire was in fact climbing, but not a ladder. He was climbing a mountain. Jack brought up the server map and looked for places over five hundred meters above sea level, he found about four hundred matching mountains and a strange tower on top of such a mountain, not exactly an accurate clue.

He looked into Fire's inventory and saw some strange things. "Bottled fire, active blaze core, whatever that is, empty bottles, blaze rods, diamond pickaxes, water buckets, bags… beef? That proves, that he has been to the Nether…"

Then he had another idea, he looked for obsidian near regions over five hundred blocks, which cut the number of mountains down to about fifty.

"Getting there…" He commented.

He looked into the inventory of the other runaways, the stuff that he found there was no different form Fire's inventory, only that it was missing the strange stuff like bottled fire or blaze cores.

"Damn it, that isn't going anywhere!" He shouted at the screen and looked over to his search, which was about one tenth done.

He thought about how far you could reasonably go with Nether travel. He limited the search to something he thought was the maximum distance. Fire alone might have gone further but he had four others in tow who would significantly slow him down.

Only a single mountain showed up.

"Bam! In your face!" He shouted.

The mountain he had found was one with a large glacier on it that was still reasonably close to the desert. He closed down the map and sent a message to all members of the hacker group: "Look for them in a two thousand block radius of the mountain with the glacier, exact location is attached."

After having found out about where they were, he decided to eat and drink something proper.

* * *

About half an hour later he went back to his computer, the search was done but it had five results, three of them were in a giant string of numbers and symbols, which was maybe for distraction or served some other obscure purpose, Jack wasn't sure, maybe he simply used the wrong encoding when opening those files. The other two were more promising, he couldn't exactly understand what was coded there but it was none of the admins' obscure code, this code was closer to Minecraft, it was about keeping people out of the server, basically a custom banning function. There was also a bit that he assumed to stop most changes to the server files themselves.

"What could that be?" He asked himself. "Very strange, maybe if Fire or some other people are on the server, we can't take over fully, which explains our fruitless attempts… The other thing could be this escape thing, removing keeping someone from the server that sounds like a good method to get rid of us… I need to tell Q about that when he gets out of the server, he has been in there for a very long now."

He turned off his screens and stood up, very satisfied with his results, going towards the bathroom.

He said to himself: "I have done enough finding stuff out for the time, they will survive without me for a bit. I need a bath."


	16. Chapter 15

Fire noticed the cold around him, they were standing in the middle of a giant glacier, the portal was standing on an elevated carved stone platform, which was strangely free of snow.

Fire knew that the hackers would know where he was, or at least that they would know the area he was in. Without doubt, the best place to hide was the Nether since a map was not readily available. He had just exited this safe house to walk the rest of the distance in the Overworld. The portal he just walked out of was the one with the most direct path to his base. If he had a portal directly in his base or close by, anyone could just walk in from the Nether or at least dramatically limit the area where his base could be. Fire aborted his train of thought when he saw that his friends had all exited the portal.

"So, where are we?" TehLulz asked.

"Good question…" Unchosen agreed.

He wrapped his hands around himself, his leaves didn't offer any protection from the cold.

"Here take those, they are made from nether wool, they will keep you warm." Fire said.

He handed them four sets of snow clothes, which were kept in white and blue tones.

Fire said: "See, everything is planned. Almost everything, the attack on you was not planned Ambigious."

"It better not have been planned." Ambigious said while pulling the jacket over his head.

A few minutes later everyone except Fire had put on their clothes, Fire didn't need extra clothing, his scales were not only good at keeping heat out but also at keeping it in, the degree of protection to cold was less than to heat but it was enough that Fire didn't need to put his set of clothes on yet.

"Everybody ready?" Fire asked. He got four positive answers, he then said: "You go first, go towards that mountain, I'll keep an eye out for anything."

Ambigious walked off the platform and down the stairs, the others followed.

"Be careful not to fall, the snow is deep here." Fire warned.

It was just in time to keep Ambigious from jumping down the last few steps, instead he carefully walked down the stairs and instantly sunk into the snow up to his knees. He started walking towards the giant mountain range covered in ice and snow that was ahead of them.

Unchosen was the last one before Fire, he said to himself: "From one extreme to another, first slavery, then Nether, now ice. When will we finally do something a bit more relaxing?"

"At my base, Unchosen, at my base. When we arrive you will get all the relaxation you want, at least when we are not training." Fire ensured.

"Training what?" Unchosen wanted to know.

"Right, haven't told you about that."

"No, you haven't."

"To be able to fight what we will certainly have to fight you four will have to practice the art of battle and also some other things. You all will have to specialize in either smithing, enchanting or brewing. There will also be a general combat training for all of you. TehLulz will do enchanting, I have no idea what freeZe or Ambigious want."

"Hmm, brewing sounds interesting…" Unchosen replied and scratched his chin through his leaves.

"And for combat? What would you think suits you?"

"Archery I think, I own a bow in real life but I haven't got any good practice lately. Tell me more about brewing though, I suppose that it is harder than in normal Minecraft."

"I wouldn't say harder, more complex would fit better. You can still make the basic potions easily. But if you really want good or interesting potions, then it gets difficult."

"Difficult potions like what?"

"You can brew potions that make you basically invincible, potions that change your voice like you saw Brad use in the arena, that and much more. Poisons with various effects and more importantly antidotes with which you can counteract those poisons. Your possibilities are limitless, each time when I think I discovered all the potion effects, I stumble upon something else like a new ingredient, the blaze core is the best example for that."

"How does brewing work here exactly?"

"First you need a good base potion, you can use nether wart as base but also the moss from mossy cobble. Different bases are good for different types of potions. For example, if you take the mob puppet out of a mob spawner and dissolve it in acid, you have a perfect base for harmful potions but you won't have any success when you try to make a healing potion from that base. In general, the better a base is the more potent the resulting potion is. For example, if you just use just use water with bone meal as a base, you will get a weak damage potion. When you use spawner essence you get a potion that can pretty much instantly kill most creatures."

"That sounds like proper alchemy. What was the hardest potion that you have ever brewed?"

There was no trace of exhaustion in Unchosen's voice anymore and a shine had entered his eyes. Fire noticed that and smiled, he was sure that Unchosen would make an excellent alchemist once he actually got his hands on the correct equipment and ingredients.

"The hardest potion? Let me think… There are actually two, one that was the hardest to figure out and the other one was the hardest to brew. The hardest one to figure out was definitely the Hypermobility Potion, gives you the ability to walk over water or straight up walls. It generally lets you say 'screw you' to some laws of physics, the more potent variants let you swim in air. The hardest one to brew was that potion I told you about, the Ultimate Base Potion, the timings for certain ingredients were very delicate and I constantly needed to keep the temperature in check."

"So, you made one of the artefacts we need for the Ban Hammer? Where is it?" Unchosen said, a little confused.

"In my base, so that cuts down the number of artefacts we need to find to... less, I don't know myself how many we need. The potion is not complete, it is just in a form where it won't degenerate. There is one ingredient missing, the Ender Dragon Egg, which we cannot open, except with the Axe of Eric the Viking, which is another one of the artefacts. The Axe currently located in the city of Rockhaven. Those two artefacts are relatively easy to get because I know where they are but I am more concerned about those I don't know about, the admins had a good reason not to tell me what awaits us."

Before Unchosen could answer anything Ambigious called Fire: "Hey, Fire! We might have a slight problem here, come over here!"

Fire ran forward to Ambigious, who had crouched down in the snow on top of a small hill, which was in front of a valley. In the valley was the last person they would expect and like to see there: The Shop Guy in full iron armor armed with a bow and an iron sword.

"He hasn't noticed us yet." Ambigious whispered.

"He seems to be looking for something…" freeZe assumed.

"Or someone." TehLulz added.

Fire said: "He is looking for me. He somehow found out that I am here somewhere, probably still has some information from the other hackers."

"And what are you going to do now?" Unchosen asked.

"I'll kill him again if I must but I prefer bloodless methods, much harder to track."

"Which won't work on him I think…" freeZe muttered.

"Fire…" Ambigious begun and stopped as he saw that Fire wasn't next to him anymore, he neither was in the valley.

"Damn it, how can he disappear like that?" He complained and then explained to Unchosen: "He did that all the time before you and TehLulz were there. Disappears, just to turn up a few minutes later, no idea how he does that."

Meanwhile the Shop Guy had put down a few logs and lit them with a flint and steel, forming a campfire and sat down next to it, facing them but not noticing that they were there.

"Maybe he isn't looking for Fire, maybe he is just travelling through here?" freeZe suspected.

Ambigious replied angrily: "Nope, he's definitely out for Fire's blood, probably for ours too. If I had a decent weapon and some armor, I would go and fight him myself."

They sat there for about five more minutes as Fire showed up as unexpectedly as he disappeared.

Fire said: "Okay, just needed to take care of some things, let's ask our Shop Guy, what he is doing here."

"Won't he just attack us, with his bow, you know?" TehLulz worried but then added: "But I should really get moving, my feet are getting cold."

Fire nodded and took his ghast bone bow from his back.

He stood up and shouted down into the valley: "Who have we here? What are you doing in this place?"

He immediately got a slightly agitated answer. "I should rather ask you what you are doing here."

As he saw freeZe, Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen he laughed and said: "And I see, you got your companions with you, time for you all to die!"

With these words he reached back to his quiver, took an arrow out and pulled back the string and released the arrow right into Unchosen's chest. With the only difference being that there was no arrow.

"What?"

He reached back once again and felt for more arrows but didn't find any.

"Where the hell are my arrows?" He asked himself.

Fire held up a good twenty arrows and shouted: "Here!"

The rest of the group looked at Fire.

It took a few moments for the Shop Guy to process what had happened, then he got his sword out and ran up the hill where they were standing. It would have looked a lot more threatening if he hadn't been wading through knee-deep snow.

Fire dropped all arrows except one and put it on the blood red string of his black ghast bone bow, while pulling it back, he said: "Okay, TehLulz, watch and learn."

TehLulz looked at Fire strangely but said nothing. As Fire had pulled the string all the way back, he suddenly made a strange sound and a red flash of light came from the tip of the arrow.

The arrow cut through the air and left a trail of red light behind it like a shooting star, as it hit the Shop Guy… nothing happened.

He stopped and laughed, triumph on his face. "Light arrows are useless against me!"

He quickly stopped laughing as he noticed that all of his armor had shattered into small metal shards and was falling off of him while he was talking. The expression on his face changed from triumph to anger, from anger to realization and from there to terror. He tried running away but as he turned around something hit his head and shattered, he felt his body going numb and lost control over his limbs.


	17. Chapter 16

The Shop Guy fell to the ground as if all his bones had liquefied, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth, his eyes were closed. All around him were shards of metal and glass.

"That was impressive." TehLulz said and gave Fire thumbs up.

freeZe asked: "What exactly was that light arrow? You said that there was no magic on the bow."

Fire knelt down and showed them the runes on the bow.

He asked: "TehLulz, some of those might look familiar, right?"

TehLulz muttered: "Yeah, this one I recognize, that one too… and oh, this one was one of the big ones…"

"Yes, you know what I did? I put a protection rune on the arrow, in this case it is a very strong protective symbol, the strongest I know of."

freeZe interrupted: "Why would you put protection on an arrow?"

Fire explained: "The second rune is a reversing symbol, so the entire enchantment means 'damage' or 'shatter', I couldn't use the regular damage rune, that one only works on living things while protection applies to armor and so does its inverted form, so it's an anti-armor arrow."

"What the hell are you even talking about?" Ambigious asked, who had checked if the Shop Guy was dead or just immobilized.

TehLulz answered: "Enchanting."

Fire whispered: "Listen now, this is important. We will go down to the fire and talk a bit, don't question anything I say, there will be some lies because I know for sure that the Shop Guy will run straight to the hackers and tell them what I said. And do not mention my sister, the Wither cultists or Brad unless I do."

He went down to the fire, picking up the Shop Guy on the way, who was hanging down like a wet rope. Fire put him down near the fire, which was already getting weaker.

Fire started: "So, let's discuss our further plans, don't worry, he can't hear us."

freeZe played along, sat down and replied: "Good idea, where will we head next?"

"We will climb over the left side of this mountain, after leaving the snowy area there is a very dense jungle, which is where I hid another Nether portal. We needed to take the Overworld route because we need to avoid a sea of lava, which we couldn't go through without more Fire Resistance. We will go through the portal and follow the tunnel there until we hit a large cavern. In this cavern there are some supplies."

The others had sat down at the campfire.

Ambigious asked: "Where will we go after that?"

Fire answered: "I can't tell you that yet but I have left a map in the cavern, which is where the approximate location of my base is noted, encoded of course, the map won't make any sense to someone who doesn't know how to read it."

"That is good. I hope that we will be at your base soon after all that heat and cold…" TehLulz said, he was struggling to keep a straight face but managed to do so.

"What about this guy here?" freeZe asked and pointed at the Shop Guy "What kind of potion was that?"

"It relaxes all motor muscles and disables the senses, you are awake but you see, feel, taste, smell and hear nothing." Fire explained.

About an hour later the fire had burnt down completely and they decided to start walking again. Fire took the lead until they reached the first steep hill, then he told the others to go ahead. Ambigious went first, then TehLulz, then freeZe and then Unchosen.

"Wait!" Fire shouted up to Ambigious.

"What?" Came the answer back down.

"Take a pickaxe!"

"Why?"

"Use it to make holes for us to step in."

He climbed up to Ambigious who was a fair bit ahead.

Fire handed him a diamond pickaxe and also gave the others one when came back down.

"If someone loses their grip, just yell and I'll keep myself ready to catch you." He promised.

freeZe mumbled: "That sounds very convincing…"

Fire answered: "I didn't just hear that."

Meanwhile Ambigious had already started climbing, it wasn't steep enough to require a pickaxe to make holes in the ice but further ahead they could see part which was almost straight up.

* * *

They were already a few hundred meters higher when Ambigious complained: "Fire, my arms and feet hurt, it is not easy to make all these holes for you all!"

"We can't take a break right now, look at the sky!" Unchosen yelled.

Half of the sky was covered in thin white clouds, the sun was still shining on the mountain but at the horizon there were big black clouds coming towards them.

Fire commented: "That doesn't look very good."

Ambigious asked: "Hey, TehLulz, could you do this instead of me now, if I keep going I will fall off this mountain."

"Just wait for us to catch up, then I'll take over."

"Thanks man."

"No problem."

freeZe looked at the sky and said: "Actually, this is the first time that I saw weather change here, they really made that realistic."

"Most of the environment actually isn't manually coded, the server used the collective experiences of the first players as a baseline and improves the simulation with each new player." Fire explained.

TehLulz had arrived where Ambigious was. Ambigious climbed back down, he had already packed his pickaxe into his inventory.

Not much time had passed until it started snowing and storming, everybody was freezing and even Fire had put on his warm clothes.

Unchosen said: "It is so cold…"

Fire looked up and mumbled: "The sky is as black as the night, the wind is too strong to keep on climbing."

He yelled upwards: "TehLulz! You can stop now, everybody else wait together!" After these words Fire climbed up to TehLulz using his claws.

Fire swept away some snow and started punching the ice until he hit stone. Then he took his diamond pickaxe and dug a short tunnel followed by a circular room large enough for them to fit in, he sat down leaning against the wall and waited for the others to come in.

Fire put down a block of wood in the middle of the room and looked for his flint and steel. He smashed the piece of iron and the flint together but no sparks appeared.

"The flint must have gotten wet." Fire said.

"What now?" freeZe asked.

Fire sighed and without answering opened his inventory, taking out the blaze core. He held it in both hands and pointed it towards the log. Fire concentrated and felt how his life force was flowing from his body to the blaze core. It was not a high life force requirement but he still felt it. Inside the core sparks started collecting, fueled by Fire's energy, condensing towards the center and forming a small sphere. When Fire felt how the core started vibrating and heating up in his hands, he stopped the energy flow. The sphere in the core was not held in place anymore. The sphere exploded, creating a bright flash of light. A small ray of energy came out of the core pointing at the wood. At first it was small but it got as thick as a finger within a second, then disappeared as fast as it had come. At first nothing happened but then the wood was set ablaze.

"So, why didn't you use this thing in the first place?" Ambigious asked.

Fire packed the core into his inventory and answered, a little exhausted: "The blaze core drains life force and not very little if I may add that. This core is capable of setting a huge forest on fire and ripping a crater into its center but I'm not capable of using this thing's full potential, I will be just using it for brewing after making it grow."

"Who is capable?" freeZe wanted to know.

"Mages." Fire answered. "Only a fraction of the population is capable of being mages though."

"Where do they live?" freeZe wanted to know.

"Some of them are hermits, you usually won't meet those. A lot of them live some in bigger towns and take care of building huge buildings with creatures they create from solid matter and magic, call them golems if you want."

"Like in the Thaumcraft mod, huh?" TehLulz asked.

"Some of the creatures do look like Thaumcraft golems but that is up to their creators. I have seen entire mountains growing arms and legs and standing up to help flatten out a huge area. There were multiple mages involved, I no normal mage is capable of commanding an entire mountain on their own."

"That is amazing." freeZe said.

The fire had burned down halfway, they hadn't talked much since then.

Ambigious broke the silence: "Fire, how did you steal those arrows from the guy?"

Fire smirked. "I dug into the ground a few meters behind you, it is pretty easy to dig through snow."

"Oooh!" Said Ambigious "That's where you went!"

"Exactly. After digging under where he was standing, I made a small hole into the snow and cut his quiver. I was pretty lucky that he didn't notice me, I would just have killed him but giving him false information was way better."

"Was meeting the guy planned?" Unchosen asked after a small pause.

Fire answered: "Not exactly planned but anticipated. Not him specifically either but in general someone who would try to kill us. That is why I told Brad to make me those potions."

freeZe looked at Fire and asked him: "You could have easily escaped without us, why didn't you?"

Fire returned her look and said: "Because I need you four, the Ban Hammer can't be created by a single person."

She asked another question: "When did you plan all this?"

"I started as soon as I knew that the hackers had taken over. Also, did you think that you and Ambigious were the first to spawn in my area? You were only the first ones who weren't exactly scared of me, one of the qualities needed to beat the challenges up ahead is being pretty fearless."

Ambigious smiled. "Hah, and I thought we were just some random people who are accidentally part of your master plan."

Fire looked at the flames and replied: "Up to some degree you are, but up to some degree we all are also legendary heroes on a mission to save the world. Don't let that go to your head though."

After saying that Fire put another block of wood down, this time a bit further from the burning piece. He extended the claws on all fingers of his right hand except for the thumb and cut the wood into sticks, throwing them into the flames, where they started burning and crackling, heating the room up again.

"We should get some sleep now, tomorrow will be a hard day. Night." He said and laid down.

"Night Fire." Unchosen said and did the same, so did the others.


	18. Chapter 17

As usual, Fire was the first one to wake up. He noticed that the fire was still burning so not much time could have passed. He felt relaxed and full of fresh energy, which was probably a side effect of his body having regenerated its life force after using the core. Fire sat up and waited for the others to wake up. Meanwhile, he thought about his plan, his real plan, not the fake plan he had told in the Shop Guy's presence. After climbing the mountain they would climb down the other side into a dense forest with a valley in it, from the outside it was not visible as it was grown over by trees and vines. Through the valley they would reach a swamp. After having that crossed, they would reach the jungle that his base was located in.

It sounded easy but it certainly was not, in the valley there was an unusually high amount of monsters because of the permanent darkness, he especially was concerned about the creepers since they could kill any of them instantly. The valley was unavoidable because the forest was surrounded by mountains and the valley was the quickest way. The swamp also was dangerous because of the slimes. The jungle was full of poisonous and carnivorous plants, not the small ones that caught flies, the big ones that could eat a human alive, in one bite. Fire sighed and leaned back against the wall, they would get there soon enough.

Fire noticed a movement at the edge of his vision and turned his head in the direction, freeZe had woken up.

"Had a good sleep?" Fire asked.

She yawned and replied: "As good of a sleep as I can have on bare rock."

"The tents in the quarry weren't much softer either."

"But they were softer."

"True."

"How about you, Fire?"

"My sleep was good, this scaled skin works wonders when sleeping on hard ground." Fire threw a few more sticks into the flames.

freeZe requested: "Tell me more about those mages or about magic, that sounded really interesting yesterday. Or was it today? I don't know."

Fire promptly started explaining: "At first you need to know where magic comes from. Living things have some innate amount of life force that refills over time after being used, it can also be stored in things like enchanted gems. There is also a varying amount of energy in the environment itself, which creatures use to refill their own reserves. Mages can use their life force to cast spells."

"So, basically the thing you did with the blaze core? But you said that you are no mage."

"To cast you don't need to be a mage, all you need is training and life force. My life force is much lower than that of a mage of course."

freeZe asked: "So, everybody has a different amount of life force?"

Fire explained: "Yes. Mages have drastically higher life forces than average people, the amount of life force needed to be a proper mage starts at roughly a hundred times the average, though it can go a lot higher than that. Not all mages can cast the same spells, though. Their range of spells depends on their elemental affinities."

"What do you mean by elemental?" freeZe wanted to know.

Fire said: "While fundamentally all magic is the same energy, this energy comes in 'flavors' called elements. The ability to convert your life force into a certain element is called an affinity, so unless you have an affinity for say Earth magic, you won't be able to cast Earth spells. The strength of the affinity determines how much energy you get for your life force."

"So… elements as in the four elements?"

"There are actually eight but something of the sort, yes. There are the eight elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Life, Wither, Ender and Void. Outside of spells and elemental creatures the elements don't exist in the wild, you just have a general background energy field."

Fire answered freeZe's question before she could even ask it: "Elemental creatures have of one or multiple magical elements instead of life force. Blazes are a good example for creatures of Fire. Their intelligence and power largely depends on the amount of energy they have in their bodies."

"Wow, that is amazing." She said, then looked at Fire and asked: "What about you then? You clearly aren't entirely human."

Fire chuckled and replied: "I am human, by most definitions. The total energy inside me is slightly above average but half of it is raw life force and the other half is Fire elemental energy, so I have far less actual life force than average humans."

"So, going by what you said, if I were a mage I would be able to use the blaze core, right?"

Fire once again took the blaze core from his inventory and said: "Yes. Be careful though, I don't want you to lose your whole energy, I can't carry you up the mountain. It is hard to explain how to do it. You know some kind of martial art, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because the concentration you need is similar. If you are able to activate the core it is a sign that you have enough life force. Oh, and don't point it at Ambigious."

"Oh… oops." freeZe said and pointed it at the ceiling.

Fire instructed her: "Alright, concentrate. If you feel the energy flowing, try to cut the flow immediately or drop the core."

freeZe took a deep breath and concentrated, suddenly something inside her body began to move. First it moved slowly as if it had to wake up first, then she felt the energy streaming towards the core like drops of water forming inside her and running up on her insides towards the core, every drop becoming a yellow spark inside the core. Fire looked at her with a strange expression on his face but she was too concentrated on the core to notice it. Suddenly, the drops became a steady flow, creating a massive amount of sparks.

"Stop!" Fire shouted, surprised by the sudden waves of energy passing through him.

freeZe tried to hold back the energy but it was harder than thought, it was like having opened a floodgate with a lake behind it and the water was preventing the gate from closing. She concentrated even more, her face was distorted into a tense grimace. She couldn't let go, her hands had cramped around the blaze core. She managed to cut the flow in half but from there on it was very hard to decrease the amount of energy further.

Fire was starting to worry, he knew what was happening, most people with a high amount of life force had this kind of experience when using a magical artefact the first time but he had never seen it this strong. The core was full of bright yellow sparks with a few orange and red ones. Fire had a way of stopping the flow, it was experimental but he had to try.

The air in the room was flickering, not from heat but from energy waves passing through the air. Fire took his bow and hummed a very high pitched tone, twisted and turned the bow and finally found what he was looking for. A rune was glowing slightly, it was just a pentagram without any other lines. Fire amplified the tone and the rune started glowing brighter and a duplicate separated from the bow and floated over to the core. freeZe noticed it and lost her concentration for a split second, large amounts of energy streamed into the core before she could hinder it again. The majority of the sparks were now orange and more red ones had formed, yellow ones were almost not present anymore.

Fire changed the pitch of his tone a little and the rune started to grow.

He thought: "Come on, just a little more…"

The rune now was as big as the core and started floating towards it and went into it, suddenly the air stopped flickering, Fire stopped his tone and freeZe dropped the core and collapsed.

"What in the world just happened?" Ambigious asked.

Fire hadn't noticed that the others had woken up but he didn't care in this moment. The core was floating in mid-air, full of red sparks. The pentagram was inside the core and stopped the sparks from touching its outside, the core was pulsating and shining but no energy came out of it. Fire leaned over to freeZe and felt her pulse, it was still there, pretty powerful too.

Fire relaxed a bit and spoke to the others: "Ambigious, it seems like your sister is a mage." Ambigious' jaw dropped. "She woke up earlier than you and I told her more about magic, she wanted to see how much energy she could mobilize and it seems that it is a lot."

Ambigious had closed his mouth again and asked: "And now? She'll stay alive, right?"

"Of course, in a bit she will be on her feet again, don't worry."

"I hope sooner rather than later." he added in thoughts.

Fire looked over to freeZe and opened his sense for energy, the core was emitting no energy, thanks to his rune. Now they only could wait and see.


	19. Chapter 18

freeZe didn't wake up in ten minutes, she didn't wake up in thirty minutes, she didn't wake up in an hour, not in two hours, not in six hours.

Fire said: "I am starting to worry."

"Only now? I started six hours ago." Ambigious said angrily.

Unchosen said: "What can we do? It is still snowing and storming."

"I really do not like how this turned out…" TehLulz complained.

They had been sitting in the little cave Fire dug doing nothing. Fire had gone mining for an hour, only finding a small vein of coal.

Unchosen looked at Fire and asked him: "How exactly did this happen? You didn't tell us earlier."

Fire cleared his throat and replied: "She managed to activate the core but the pull was too strong and she could not stop the energy flow, she could hinder it but not completely stop it." He sighed. "It was my fault, I shouldn't have let her use such a powerful artefact, I am surprised she lived to be honest."

"And what about the core now? How did you stop it from eating all of her energy?" TehLulz asked.

"You remember how I enchanted the core in the Nether, right? The simple activation of the core would be very easy but the hard part was empowering it and lowering the risk when using it."

"You didn't lower it enough." Ambigious interrupted.

Fire began talking again: "That is why I used a very complicated ritual, see this pentagram in the core? I put the symbol on it when I saw that she couldn't handle it. The pentagram is a symbol without a meaning of its own, I had to define what it does in the enchantment." A few seconds later he added: "Don't look at me like that Ambigious, she is still alive and she should be back on her feet soon, six hours is enough for her to refill most of her life force."

"Good to hear that." Ambigious answered.

A surprised look came to his face as freeZe actually moved as if she would have heard him.

"Hey Fire, talking about that, look who is waking up." Ambigious said with a smile.

freeZe moved and opened her eyes, which were not shining as green as usual.

"Hey, freeZe!" Ambigious said.

She tried to speak but all that came out were words slurred beyond comprehension.

TehLulz grinned, so did Unchosen and Fire.

Ambigious asked: "Huh?"

She spoke again, more coherently this time but still unintelligible, coughed and then corrected herself: "How long was I asleep?"

Her voice was still weak but it was clearly just her being sleepy.

"What happened?" freeZe asked.

Fire took a deep breath and started explaining: "I was talking to you about magic, remember that?"

"Kind of…"

"You wanted to try if you had enough life force to be a mage. You do. The core pulled almost all life force from your body, I was almost too late to shut the core off. See it there?"

He pointed at the core, which was now floating above the burning wood block.

"All those red sparks, this is my life force?"

"Was, it was your life force, now it is magical energy of the Fire element. You can't get it out of there as long as the rune is active, which will be forever unless someone unlocks it."

"What happens to the core now?" Ambigious asked.

"My sister will have to unlock it in a magical containment field, then we will also be able to tell how much life force freeZe put in there."

"Could you unlock it?" freeZe asked.

"If you want us all to die in an explosion that decapitates this mountain and evaporates the whole glacier… Then yes."

"Oh…" freeZe replied "Was it that much?"

"I don't know how much exactly is in there but red sparks are usually very powerful, that combined with the enchantments I put on the core, it is pretty devastating."

"So, Fire, how much life force did you use to activate it when you were lighting the fire?" Ambigious asked, he still was a little confused, magic wasn't his thing.

Fire answered: "It was not really much, just a few grey sparks, they are some of the least powerful ones, even weaker than the yellow ones. The power of sparks increases exponentially as their color gets more intense. Although the measurement of sparks is only used in theoretical research on magic and spell cost calculations, irrelevant to most mages in practice."

freeZe lifted an eyebrow, which was only visible by her left eye getting bigger.

"Sounds like a lot. How didn't you sense all that energy before?" She asked.

Fire scratched his head and explained: "You remember what the Wither cultists said, right? They can see how much energy is inside something or someone, I can only sense energy flow and at the time you were in the quarry you didn't use any magic. The cultists did mention someone having a lot of energy though… I should have caught onto that. In my defense, I was quite hungry when they mentioned it."

TehLulz hinted: "As much as I would like to listen to you talking about magic, we should go now, if you can, freeZe."

Fire agreed: "He is right. freeZe, can you stand up?"

"I'll try." She said and leaned on her right arm. "Might work…" She added and tried to stand up but fell back down on half the way. "Ouch…"

Fire sighed and got out Brad's bag again.

Unchosen asked: "What potion is it this time?"

Fire replied: "I made this one myself, I just told Brad to give it to me in the bag."

He pulled out a round bottle with a shining golden liquid inside, it seemed to draw the light around it to itself.

"See how the light collects around it? That is golden apple concentrate, extremely powerful, everybody just gets a drop."

They felt energized by the potion and even freeZe could stand up as if nothing had happened. Fire removed the snow in front of the entrance and looked into a dark blue sky.


	20. Chapter 19

It took the Shop Guy five hours to be able move again, he was covered in snow but he didn't care, he logged out of the server, he had more important things to do and he did not plan on coming back.

He woke up in his room in front of his laptop, not much time had passed since he logged in. Meeting Fire had not been planned in any way, it just had been a very fortunate coincidence. He stood up and stretched, then sat down again. He started one of the hacker applications he still had, it was the voice chat one. He double clicked a name and waited.

* * *

Just after Jack had finished taking a bath he heard the signal tone of his voice chat application and moaned: "Who in the world is calling me now? It is almost three in the morning…"

He walked over to his screens and looked at the name, it was the Shop Guy.

"I should have activated the remote deletion… But since I didn't I might as well hear him out." He pushed a button to pick up the call, he asked: "Why are you calling me?"

"Because I have information."

"And let me guess, you want to be in the hacker team again in exchange for that information." Jack said.

The Shop Guy replied: "Hah, I might have issues but I am not stupid, I'll just give you the info, delete the apps, leave the server and you'll never hear from me again."

"We have an agreement. So, what is it?"

"I ran into Fire, figured he somehow escaped. He stole my arrows and used some kind of magic arrow to shatter my armor."

"Okay… that is somewhat disturbing, him being able to do such things, go on."

"I tried running away but he hit me with a splash potion that made me unable to move, it should have disabled my senses too but that somehow didn't work, so I heard what he said."

"That is excellent news, it was something about where they are going, right?" Jack assumed.

"Exactly, he said that he will climb over the left side of the mountain and then go to a jungle, where another Nether portal is."

"Let me check that one real quick…" Jack said and brought up the server map again, he went back to the mountain and there was in fact a jungle near it.

"Yep, the jungle is there." He reported.

Then he searched for obsidian in the jungle and indeed found some, right in the center of the jungle, where a temple was visible from the map's point of view.

Jack grinned and said: "You just helped us out a bunch, thank you, any further info?"

"Oh yes, there is further info." The Shop Guy said with triumph in his voice

"Fire said that there is a large Nether cavern with some supplies in it and most importantly, a map with the location of his base, it is encrypted but I am sure you can find out where it is."

Jack was surprised and pleased with what he had just heard, he hovered his cursor above the button for the deletion and said: "Thank you for this valuable piece of information, I'll clear your computer of our apps now, was nice trying to take over a server with you."

Both laughed and Jack pushed the button.

A fire was burning inside Jack now, he had the chance to stop the runaways and ensure the success of their plan, he knew the exact place where the portal was, he only had to go there and wait for them… or find Fire's base, destroy it and then wait for them. He started up Minecraft and logged into the server. A numb feeling went up his arms and a second later he woke up where he logged out, in the quarry's processing building. There were players working on polishing diamonds, grinding redstone gems and doing other refinery work. Later down the line there were other players making tools and sharpening swords, it all ran like clockwork. As they noticed Jack logging in, they greeted him and continued with their work. Jack ignored them and noclipped through the ceiling high up into the sky, then he flew towards the glacier with high speed and descended.

"Here is the first portal…"

He had spotted a black rectangle in the middle of the white snow. Jack descended a little more and searched the ground for footprints but didn't find any, a recent storm had covered them with snow.

"Okay, now for that jungle."

He flew up again and over the mountain, there were three different biomes in front of him. There was a very dense forest, a taiga and the jungle he was looking for, he could also see another jungle very far off in the distance behind a swamp. Jack floated down into the trees and started looking for the temple, flying through trees and small hills with his noclip.

"It has to be here somewhere…" He said to himself and continued searching the jungle.

About an hour later he found what he was looking for, the jungle temple. With a feeling of triumph he turned off his noclip and walked in through the entrance. He knew about the traps and had already made himself invincible. After passing by several arrow traps he found the portal, it was completely grown over by thick vines and the purple was almost not visible anymore. He spawned himself a diamond axe and cut through the vines, which were almost as hard as wood. He stepped through the portal and found himself in the Nether. He was in a three-by-three corridor, he couldn't see the end.

"Let's see how long it is." He said and flew along the tunnel with very high speed, passing by confused zombie pigmen.

The Shop Guy hadn't lied, there was in fact a huge cavern with a few buildings. He spawned himself a pickaxe and multiplied his strength by ten, then he started hammering down the roofs to see what was inside, mostly chests with potions.

"Nothing…" he said.

He then collapsed another building in which he didn't find anything in. There were only a few left, it had to be in one of them. He got lucky with the next house, it actually had a sign above the door, "Supplies".

"Oh." Jack said, then he descended to the ground and opened the door.

There were a few chests labelled with signs. "Potions… Armor… Swords… Other… there." He said while walking along the chests. He opened the chest labelled "Other" and found nothing.

"What…" He asked himself and realized that the items were not stored in the inventory but physically in the chest itself.

He opened it and found a piece of paper, he took it out. There was nothing on one side but on the other side there was a drawing, maybe Fire's map?

As he looked at the drawing more closely, the mountain formation depicted on the map looked very odd, then he realized that it was a message, there were two big letters on top: "GG" Below there was a tiny text: "You will die in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"

"What!" Jack screamed and the last thing he heard before the TNT went off was a jukebox playing the first notes of the golden record.

He respawned in the room where all the hackers had set their spawn, his whole body was hurting. He first checked his hacks if there was anything against pain, he didn't find anything.

"God damn Admins…" He cursed and sat up. "Why didn't my godmode work?"

This was a double failure, the first one was that the chest must have been trapped, which meant that Fire had known he would come there. The second failure was that he knew exactly as much as before, it just had been too good to be true. He sat there for five minutes but as the pain didn't go away, he just logged off.

Jack slammed his fist on the table in frustration, making the things he had on top of it shake. He opened his communication application and noticed that Q, the head hacker, had logged out of the server and was now available. He instantly double clicked on the button to call him and waited. It took Q ten seconds to pick up the call, he must have been drinking something.

"What is it Jack?" Q asked with a dry throat.

"We have some major clusterfuck going on!" Jack replied.

"You only use that word when things are serious."

"That is actually a term from military jargon for total failure but that is not important now. We have several problems. We still haven't found the runaways, we have started a search around their approximate location but no luck with that so far."

"And the other things?" Q asked and took another big sip from his bottle.

"The Shop Guy contacted me again, he still had the app. He told me that he ran into Fire and his companions, Fire threw a potion at him that was supposed to disable all his senses and muscles but the senses part didn't work, he heard how Fire talked about their travel route."

"And what exactly is so bad about that?" Q wanted to know.

"I went where he told me to go and there was a booby trapped chest which blew me up with about two tons of TNT." Jack responded.

"Didn't you use godmode?"

"I did but the portal must have reset it, so now we know for a fact that those admins have actually something built in to actively prevent hacking or at least make it harder. By the way, I found something in the code, it is somehow in connection with Fire and it involves removing someone from the server and preventing a takeover, so basically as long as Fire is alive, we can't take over what so ever."

Q replied: "Okay, this is serious, even if it is just a few more days I have to wait out. Something must have gotten out, the police started searching for us, especially for me. Today my hideout almost got found, those cops were standing right on the hatch and I couldn't lock it because that would have made a sound."

"Okay Q, now for the worst part. I doubt that this potion was actually malfunctioning, maybe Fire expected to run into someone and told lies, which would explain the trap at the chest… Essentially, he played us good." Jack said.

"So, neither do we don't have any clue about his travel route nor the location of his base nor do we have any way to kill him quicker but he has a way of removing us from the server so if we don't find him we will have no chance of getting the code. But if we manage to pass the time until his death undetected by the police and without Fire banning us, we have total control over the server and after that we have all the time in the world to extract the code from the admins or get it ourselves."

"True Q but we'll have to find him first. If you want to hear my opinion on this, he won't just have a device in his base that can ban anyone, that is just too easy, the admins wouldn't do that. I would rather think that it would be hidden in a spot where you need to be him to access it."

Q didn't respond at first but a few seconds later he said: "That might actually be true. So our primary worry is the police at the moment. I kicked off the generator I have down here, it is too risky to draw power from the public network from now on, I made sure to hide the old cables as well. I have plenty of canned food and water so I have that."

"What about us other members?" Jack asked.

"You are not at danger currently as the only detected attacks are from my computer, which is down here." Q replied.

"So, we are not at danger of the police storming our houses or anything like that?"

"I am pretty sure that you are safe."

"Good." Jack said and then added: "I'll be trying to make sense of some of that code, it will be a lot easier now that I have a point to start from, I can't believe that we didn't think about that!"

"I'll be spending my time sitting in this improvised bunker coordinating, bye."

"Bye." Jack said and closed down the app.


	21. Chapter 20

After reaching the summit everything got easier, the other side of the mountain had many cliffs but the snow was deep enough to safely fall down. They were heading towards the dense forest with the valley. They had already jumped and climbed down half the mountain. The golden apple concentrate was still giving them energy and sharpened their senses.

"I am still amazed by this potion, Fire. I can see all the way over to the end of this forest, is this how you see?" freeZe asked.

Fire laughed and replied: "Multiply the effect by five, add infrared and ultraviolet and then you have my vision."

"Wow, that's a lot."

"I could see you four sitting at the fire from all the way from my mining place when we were in the quarry, in full detail."

"What do you mean?" TehLulz asked.

"Like every color reflection on Ambigious' sunglasses or each hair on your heads." Fire answered.

They were a few meters away from another twenty-meter drop, Fire stepped towards the snow covered edge and looked down. Down there was snow, as expected, but he didn't know how deep the snow was and what was below it. He took a cobblestone piece out of his inventory and placed it, broke out a pebble with his claws and threw it down the drop. Absolutely no sound came back up, which meant it was safe.

"I'll jump first, then freeZe, then Unchosen, then TehLulz and then Ambigious." He said.

The others didn't question this order because Fire had already explained them that he went first himself because if there was something unexpected, he was more likely to survive it than the others.

This jump was safe, like every jump before it. Two meters of snow cushioned Fire's fall, which buried him up to his chest. After getting free he gave the others thumbs up and they also jumped down, Ambigious this time with a back flip.

"Was that really necessary Ambigious?" freeZe asked.

He answered: "Yup."

After a few minutes of silent walking Unchosen asked: "By the way Ambigious, your name, was writing Ambigious instead of Ambiguous on purpose?"

"It kinda was, I typed it wrong the first time for some reason but I noticed it. Then I just left it."

"I see." Unchosen answered.

After walking about a minute, Ambigious asked Unchosen: "What about you? TheUnchosenOne seems to be a name with a story behind it, at least to me."

"It indeed has a story behind it, when I was younger I never got lucky with anything, never won at luck based games and generally had circumstances conspire against me."

"Sounds depressing…" Ambigious said.

"It was at first but then it tried to take it with humor and actively embraced my lack of luck. As soon as I did that the bad things didn't seem as bad because I was expecting them. Over time I learned how to be one step ahead of the misfortune." Unchosen explained.

"That is a good way of going about it." Ambigious said.

"Yeah, once I got online choosing my handle was pretty straight forward." Unchosen said.

"What are you two needing so much time for?" They heard freeZe call and noticed they were twenty meters behind the others.

"Nope!" Ambigious shouted and sprinted towards his sister, before she knew what was going on, Ambigious had tackled her into the snow.

freeZe got up and said: "Not funny." TehLulz started laughing.

"But it is funny." He said and got hit in the face by a snowball, which again made Ambigious and Unchosen burst into laughter.

TehLulz wiped the snow from his face and grinned. "Worth it."

"You also want one?" freeZe asked while getting up.

"No…" Unchosen said.

Ambigious grinned "I would say no but I know you will shoot me either way."

"Try it." Fire said with a smile.

"Challenge accepted." freeZe said while making two more snowballs.

She threw the first one towards Ambigious, hitting him in the chest, which didn't do anything because of his jacket. freeZe moaned and turned around towards Fire, who was not wearing the warming nether wool clothes, only his ruined coat and pants. She threw her snowball.

Fire saw the snowball coming towards him, slowing down gradually. He leaned to the side, which made the snowball miss his left ear by a tiny bit. He could have just gone back to his normal position but Fire wanted to pull off a little show, part for fun and part to practice projectile management again. Combat was inevitably ahead of them so getting back into the groove was good.

Catching projectiles was important in a lot of situations, it prevented the projectile from harming anything behind him and at the same time tended to intimidate the one who had shot the projectile in the first place. This tactic had saved Fire a lot of unnecessary talking multiple times.

He turned around while still in the slow motion state and grabbed the snowball with his right hand, slowing it down by finishing the rotation. The same moment he came to a stop the slow motion state wore off, Fire smiled and dropped the snowball, then turned around and started walking again as if nothing happened.

"Are you four coming? We have to reach the forest before night falls."

* * *

It was evening when they arrived in the forest, they were all somewhat tired from the climb down the mountain and Fire was looking for a good place to sleep. They had taken off their jackets and the rest of the nether wool clothes.

"It is amazing how the trees look like real trees. How everything just looks like in real life." freeZe said.

Fire answered: "You'll see a lot more trees now that we're out of the desert. Talking of trees, this one over there seems to be suitable. Follow me."

Fire walked towards a large tree with lots of branches, it was a good twenty meters high and pretty much as wide. Fire extended his claws but not all the way, he used them to climb up the tree like a cat. When he arrived in the middle, he looked around, the tree was in fact very suitable, suitable for sleeping.

Fire bent some branches with leaves to form some kind of hammock, he repeated the process four more times and then called the others. There was almost no light left, almost absolute darkness for normal eyes but for Fire it was still pretty bright. He jumped down and formed a bowl with his hands.

"I'll help you up, step on my hands and I'll lift you." He said.

Ambigious stepped on Fire's hands first and supported himself on the tree as Fire lifted him up.

"Wow, it looks amazing up here! freeZe, you've got to see this!" Ambigious said.

freeZe got lifted up next, then Unchosen and then TehLulz, Fire climbed up last. Everyone chose a leaf hammock. Shortly after laying down he got up again and took the blaze core out of his inventory.

"Isn't that a bad idea? Blaze core and forest?" Ambigious asked.

Fire explained: "As long as it is sealed it won't burn anything, it gives off light though, a little bit of light could be good, it will become much darker than this. Nights here are very dark because there is no electrical lighting or cities nearby. Or hacker operated ore processing buildings."

With these words he put the core on a splitting branch where it started emitting light, not enough to see it from the outside of the tree but enough to illuminate the inside with a soft yellow and orange light.

"Isn't it available in different colors?" Ambigious asked jokingly.

Fire chuckled and asked: "Why?"

"Because freeZe" Ambigious nodded towards his sister "gets all romantic in this kind of light."

"No, I don't!" She replied angrily.

TehLulz, whispered to Unchosen: "And the old game starts again."

Unchosen replied: "I know right."

Fire asked Ambigious: "What exactly do you mean when you say romantic?"

freeZe answered instead of Ambigious, this time louder: "Come one guys, do you really have to do this now?"

"Yes." Ambigious answered and then explained: "Not exactly romantic, but… well, sentimental."

TehLulz, who was at the other side of the tree, asked: "And what exactly is so bad about that?"

"She will kick me off the tree when I say any more, sorry." Ambigious replied grinning.

"You can bet on that!" freeZe said, still a bit angry but you could hear, that she was thankful for Ambigious not saying more.

Unchosen and TehLulz were on the other side of the tree, which was a little away from the others.

"What is he talking about?" Unchosen wanted to know as he saw TehLulz grinning.

He whispered to Unchosen: "Fire and you are the only ones that he hasn't directly told, Ambigious had to tell me after he lost a bet, it is really no big thing but freeZe does not want anyone to know about it, no idea why."

"What is it?" Unchosen whispered back.

"You might have noticed some jokes about freeZe that Ambigious tells sometimes."

"What about them?"

"They have two main subjects, the first is freeZe being hard to get."

"I know what you mean."

"Yeah, and the other one is" he had to stop himself from laughing out loud and started to grin "freeZe having a crush on Fire. Fire never said anything about the jokes."

"I have noticed Ambigious telling them, he just told one before but now I understand."

"And about what Ambigious isn't allowed to tell… no, I won't tell you. Yet. You will find out eventually. Or not, it's not that big of a deal."

They were interrupted by Fire telling them to go to sleep: "Tomorrow will be a hard day, we will most likely have to fight our first monsters in that valley, better get some sleep." Everybody nodded and laid down.


	22. Chapter 21

Fire was the first one to wake up, it was still very early and the blaze core was the main light source in the tree. He sat up and made sure everybody was sleeping. He jumped out of his hammock, down onto the soft ground, not making a sound, ready to fight off any monsters that might be left from the night. When he saw that there were no monsters, he relaxed. The thing he needed to do now was make equipment for the whole group and in this case equipment meant stone swords and wooden plate armor. Wooden plate armor meant wood and wood meant trees. After chuckling about this stupidly simple chain of conclusions he looked for a small tree and found one right away.

After cutting down a few trees using his claws he crafted some of the wood into planks and those planks into a crafting table, which he put down. Fire put a hand on the block, closed his eyes and the crafting grid appeared in front of his mental eye. In this case it was easier to make a regular Minecraft stone sword than to use the materials to construct it physically. He would need bindings, a handle and several other things that would just make it more complicated and less effective. You could do this with stone tools but for iron or diamond it would be a complete waste of materials to use a crafting table. To make proper tools you would have to smelt the iron and forge a blade or tool head, which would take longer but the tools would be a lot better. For diamonds the process was even more complicated and only few people knew how to turn diamonds into armor or tools. While Fire was one of those people, he did not have the equipment necessary to do so in his base. If you succeeded in completing the diamond forging process however, the tools and armor would be nigh-indestructible.

After making ten stone swords the difficult part began. The wooden plate armor had no recipe in Minecraft so he had to make it himself. First he had to cut the wooden logs into fitting pieces meant to protect the wearer's chest and back. That was the easy part.

Fire spent the next two hours shaving tiny strips off of logs and bundling them together into a tough rope.

"Fire, what exactly are you doing there?" A voice said, Fire recognized the speaker as Unchosen.

"I am ensuring that we don't get slaughtered by the mobs in the first hundred meters of the valley. Why don't you come down, I could use someone helping me bundle those ropes." Fire explained.

Unchosen hung down from a branch and dropped down to the ground.

"Ouch!" He said as he felt a sting in his feet.

He got up and walked over to Fire, who looked pretty funny with all the tiny wood pieces scattered around the area.

"The workbench log massacre." Fire joked.

Unchosen smiled and asked: "How can I help you?"

"You just take those thin strips and do this." Fire took a handful of strips and quickly wove three together to a very thin rope.

"Good, I know how to do that." Unchosen said and sat down, took some strips for himself and started working.

After a good thirty minutes most of the strips were woven to thin one meter pieces of rope, then they took three of those and wove them together to thicker ropes.

While still weaving ropes Unchosen asked: "Fire, how do the mobs here work, are they still about the same only with more details?"

Fire shook his head and replied: "They are not the same, mostly. The creepers still do what they can do best, they explode. Spiders are also quite similar, they jump you and try to eat you alive. But there are no zombies or skeletons, there are just the generic category of 'undead', this can reach from a standard zombie over ghouls, and let me tell you, those are no joke, up to the very rare lich lords. Lich lords will most likely kill you, even with the best equipment. They are powerful undead mages without life force, they just drain the energy straight out of the environment."

"Sounds pretty nasty." Unchosen commented.

"It is, trust me. Remember me saying that combat a lot harder here? You will really see what that means when we reach the valley, the skeletons that have bows aim where they will do the most damage, so for heart and head. They are not very accurate but when they do land a good hit you will be wounded pretty badly."

"About how many mobs will there be?" Unchosen wanted to know and shivered.

"There won't be that many, the spawn rates tend to be pretty manageable, but we will sometimes have to fight multiple mobs at once." Fire said.

The sun was just rising over the trees, which looked amazingly different from the desert sunrises, which only were red, orange and yellow, this one also had the green from the trees mixed into it.

An hour later freeZe and TehLulz joined them. freeZe, TehLulz and Unchosen were making rope while Fire was carefully drilling holes into the wooden plates using his claws.

"How much of this rope are we going to have to make?" freeZe asked.

Fire answered: "I'll make one chestplate and we'll see." He took four wooden plates and a piece of rope, put the rope through the holes and used more pieces of rope to make a crate of log pieces without top and bottom.

"Mind trying this on Unchosen?" Fire asked.

Unchosen nodded and got up, Fire handed him the crate and he put his head through.

"It is a bit heavy but it fits. Sort of." Unchosen said.

"That sounds just great." freeZe commented.

Fire took the crate again and put additional small plates on some holes and a bit later it looked much better and more like actual armor.

"Now try this." He said.

Unchosen stood up and put the wooden plating armor on again, this time he didn't have to hold it up with his hands.

"Better than before, I actually feel a bit protected but it is even heavier now." He laughed.

"Move your arms as far as you can." Fire commanded.

Unchosen was a bit limited by the wood but he was able to move his hands pretty freely. Fire gave him one of the stone swords, which looked exactly like you would expect a sword to look like, only made out of stone.

"Try swinging it." He said.

Unchosen was surprised by the weight of the sword and it fell out of his hand, he tried to pick it up again but couldn't because the wooden armor was limiting him. freeZe chuckled, picked up the sword and gave it to Unchosen again, he was visibly embarrassed.

"Attack me with the sword." Fire demanded.

"Isn't that dangerous for you?" TehLulz asked.

"No, he won't be able to hit me and if he does hit me, it is just stone, it will just bounce off my scales. Just go for it."

As Unchosen was charging at him, the world around Fire slowed down, not as much as when the Shop Guy attacked, only to about to one third of normal speed. Unchosen prepared to strike but to Fire it looked hilariously slow, he could easily take a step to the right and make Unchosen hit the air. Unchosen almost fell over because of the weight of his wooden armor and his stone sword but he managed to stay upright.

"Again!" Fire commanded and smiled a little.

Unchosen attacked again, this time he didn't slash vertically but horizontally. Fire saw the swing coming and jumped back a few steps, this time Unchosen could compensate for the momentum a bit better.

"Try a little less powerful swings." Fire advised and readied himself again.

TehLulz had stopped making ropes and was now standing closer to the two watching the fight, so had freeZe. Unchosen raised his sword for a vertical attack, Fire took a step to the left but then Unchosen suddenly redirected his sword, forming an arc. Time slowed down by an additional half, Fire barely managed to evade the incoming hit by jumping backwards again.

"That was much better!" Fire congratulated as he saw that Unchosen could manage the weight of his gear even better. As he saw Unchosen preparing another attack, he added: "But we should stop now, we don't want to exhaust ourselves before the actual battle, right?"

Twenty minutes later they heard a sound, which sounded like something heavy falling from a high place onto something soft.

Five seconds after that they heard Ambigious' scream: "I told you these are not safe!"


	23. Chapter 22

"Seems like Ambigious finally woke up." freeZe noted.

"And it seems like he fell out of the tree." TehLulz added and smiled.

After a few seconds of silence Fire asked: "Would somebody go over there or should I?"

As he didn't get an answer he stood up and ran over to the tree, where Ambigious was lying on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Fire asked.

Ambigious answered: "My backside hurts but everything else is fine."

"Now that you finally woke up, get over there and help making some armor." Fire said without asking further.

Ambigious stood up and made his way over to his sister, Unchosen und TehLulz, all three were smiling at him as he arrived.

"What?" He asked.

"You overslept by two hours." TehLulz replied.

"And? I once overslept by a day."

freeZe explained: "He actually did, I wondered where he was the whole time I realized what had happened the next morning. I pretended he didn't oversleep until he noticed that the TV program was different."

While they told Ambigious what they were doing, Fire made another suit of wooden armor.

"freeZe, this is yours, try it on." He said.

The armor wasn't much different from the one he gave to Unchosen, the only difference was that it wasn't quite as wide. freeZe got up and put on her armor.

"Fits pretty well." She commented but as she wanted to take it off again.

Fire interrupted her: "Take one of the swords and attack me."

* * *

It was almost noon when Fire made the last set of armor, his own. Everybody ate some of the leftover steaks and drank some water.

"So, where is this valley?" Ambigious asked.

Fire pointed into the forest and replied: "Somewhere in there." He then asked: "Everybody ready?"

After he received four positive answers he started walking into the forest. He took a brief look at his inventory. A diamond pickaxe, water buckets, the bottled fire, some arrows, two stone swords and the blaze core, those were the most important things. His bow was on his back. Fire stopped to look for a certain tree, one without leaves but still healthy, when he didn't find it he continued walking, his friends right behind him.

A little later, he spotted the tree, it looked like its leaves had fallen off a long time ago, the tree was giant.

"There." He said.

He then carefully walked towards one of the roots at the trees base.

"This isn't an ordinary tree, you know. It is an elemental creature of Earth, a pretty powerful one, it's kind is also known as 'Treeguards' or 'walking trees', which mostly applies to the smaller ones, they get less mobile as they grow older and bigger. This one has been asleep for a long time but I will have to wake him up to get to the valley." Fire explained in a quiet voice.

"How will you wake him?" freeZe asked.

"Watch, and be quiet." Fire answered.

He walked over to the trunk, took a deep breath and made a small cut into the bark using a claw, then he took out the golden apple concentrate and let one drop drip into the cut. Suddenly, the tree started shaking and so did the ground above where his roots were, it was like an earthquake.

"What is happening?" freeZe had panic in her voice.

Ambigious tried to calm her down but didn't sound all that confident himself: "I think Fire knows what he is doing."

Fire himself had stepped back a few steps and was now watching the tree. All of a sudden, the tree stopped shaking. A few seconds of silence later, a voice spoke to them, it was a very loud, rumbling bass voice, it was calm but it sounded so present, distinct and awake that it sent a cold shiver down their spine with every letter.

"Who awakens me from my sleep?" The voice asked.

Of all of the five, Fire had the most reasons to be scared, even though he seemed perfectly calm from the outside, he knew who was talking and what he was capable of. Fire knew to be careful about what he said.

He answered in a respectful voice: "I woke you, Oalrhm, guardian of the forest, creature of Earth."

"At last someone knows the right words. What is your name, awakener?" The voice replied.

"My name is Fire." Fire answered and then added: "I seek entry to the Graveyard of the Forest."

The voice laughed, which sounded like wood creaking and the wind rushing through old branches. "What do you desire to do in that place?"

"I want to use it as a hidden passage to shake off pursuers, I am aware of but not interested in the treasure of that place."

Unchosen, still a bit intimidated asked a question: "Who is speaking there?"

The voice answered: "I am Oalrhm, the guardian of trees, I am the old tree in front of you but I am much more than a tree, I am the forest and the forest is me."

Fire explained to Unchosen: "You can't enter the valley without the permission of Oalrhm. The real name of the valley, the Graveyard of the Forest, comes from all the corpses of the all too brave adventurers who tried their luck getting through it without permission. Now they are skeletons impaled by thorns, choked to death or crushed by vines."

Oalrhm said: "Yes, that is true, I do not want greedy humans in my forest, they cut down all my trees, take all the ore that gives me energy, steal all the ancient treasure in ruins or just are foolish enough to think they can fight their way through. You five, you have used the forest as your protection, I am always surprised how much trust humans put in wood, they use it for everything. I have nothing against that as long as they take it from a spiritless forest without a Treeguard of its own."

"So, you are not angry that we cut down your trees?" freeZe asked slowly.

Oalrhm answered: "No, I am not. I can accept the loss of half a dozen trees if they are put to good use. What I cannot tolerate however, are hordes of lumberjacks coming to rode hectare after hectare, I kill them and throw them into the Graveyard of the Forest with the other corpses to rot. Sadly the valuables that have amassed over time attract even more adventurous people. I like the humans' trust in wood, they build their houses out of it, the places where they live and sleep, but if they take more than they need, it puts me in a fury."

freeZe asked another question: "There are more powerful creatures of Earth than you, right?"

Oalrhm laughed. "Of course there are, but not many. However those are far more powerful." He made a small pause and then continued: "Now it is my turn to ask questions. First, Fire, how did you find out about me?"

Fire, not speaking in the very formal language he used before, answered: "I read a book about the elemental creatures of Earth."

"Hmm, where did you get that book? It is rare, that humans write about us, they prefer creatures of Fire or Air, perhaps because they are more common and easier to notice and apparently more interesting."

"The book, along with many others, is, or was, found in the Great Library of Knowledge of Rockhaven, the biggest town of this world. The book is not somewhere between the books for everyone, it is located in a section exclusively mages have access to."

Oalrhm said: "Rockhaven hmm? You also do not look much like a mage to me, I can feel burning energy inside you, the fiery sort of your species is not known for magical feats…"

Fire smiled and answered: "I might not be a mage myself but my sister is one, that way I could get into that section."

Ambigious asked: "So, you just walked into the library and she opened it for you?"

Fire shook his head and explained: "Oh no, it was not as easy as that. The thing with Rockhaven is that only people living in the town can enter. This city is a fortress, guarded by well-trained guards in indestructible diamond armor, protected by several magic shields and wards. The city walls are almost as hard bedrock and continue underground. We had to get into that fortress to get to those books, it would take way too long to explain it all. After we were in the section, I took the books I needed and then we escaped using magic. That all happened very long ago."

"So, you can just teleport out of this fortress?" freeZe asked.

"Sure, the spells only protect one way, this is because if the city needs to be evacuated, they can just teleport everyone out. Now the books are in my base."

Oalrhm wanted to know: "That was very brave, Fire. Why did you do it? Why are those books so important for you? Greed? The thirst for knowledge? Or perhaps something else?"

"They are important because at that time someone of high rank in the town might have abused them, I have carefully studied the hierarchies and the power relations in the town and came to the conclusion that in the wrong hands they would be devastating. It cost me hundreds of diamonds to pay all of those spies…"

"So, you stole them to protect? Not unusual for your kind…" Oalrhm said.

After nobody said anything, Oalrhm spoke again: "Well, travelers. I will open the passage to the Graveyard of the Forest now. But before that, I have a gift for you. Even with your trust in wood, you would not make it through."

After he had spoken the weight of the armor was taken off their shoulders. Fire looked down to see what was going on. The wood was changing color from its bright brown to a darker, blueish grey. The armor of all of them changed shape, the ropes disappeared and the plates grew together forming an all-around protection.

Vines grew out of the shoulder pieces and wrapped around their arms and legs, protecting them while remaining flexible.

"This is the gift of the forest, an ancient kind of wood, steelwood. It used to grow in large underground caverns but all of them collapsed by now. My kind still knows about it and I gave it to you. This may not be the best decision but I feel that you five carry a great burden." Oalrhm explained.

The earth was shaking again and a gap opened at the base of the tree, stabilized by little vines and roots.

"This is the entrance to the Graveyard of the Forest. I will sleep now, the tunnel will close soon." After these words Oalrhm sighed and didn't say anything else.

"Let's go, I guess…" Ambigious said, everyone else nodded.


	24. Chapter 23

Fire explained while walking through the tunnel: "For zombies it works like you would expect. If you kill the brain, the zombie dies, so go for the head. Skeletons just need to be smashed to pieces. If you break one of their arms, they can't harm you, they don't have much physical strength. For spiders, pierce the head with your sword and avoid being bitten. For creepers it's the usual tactic. Charge, hit, retreat but should never attack the head, this makes them instantly blow up. For enemies you don't know, like higher undead, just let me handle that. And most importantly, don't stand right behind me, skeletons will focus on me and I will have to dodge the arrows and if you are standing behind me you will be hit. Don't look at endermen under any circumstances, they will destroy you. Everyone gets three drops of the golden apple concentrate, that's close to the amount that would kill a normal human. freeZe should be safe since she is a mage."

"Seriously?" TehLulz asked.

"Yes, seriously." Fire answered "Any less would leave us at a disadvantage in battle, I need to go for the highest safe dose here. If you drink too much, you die from the potion but if you don't drink enough, you die from the mobs."

"Okay, then…" TehLulz replied.

"Hey, Fire, mind stopping the talk about death, it makes me even more nervous." freeZe said.

"Hey, you are the one with the black belt here." Ambigious said to his sister.

Fire explained: "It would be better if you were using the sword, punches don't do anything to zombies as they don't feel pain and are pretty tolerant to wounds, just cut their head off and be done with it. You can still smash skeletons to bits if you want."

The end of the tunnel was coming in sight, they increased their pace.

"Another thing." Fire said "Skeletons don't always have bows, sometimes they have swords or battleaxes and sometimes are unarmed. We're almost there."

He pulled the bottle of golden apple concentrate out of Brad's bag and gave everyone three drops, including himself. Unchosen started stepping left and right, as if he couldn't keep himself upright anymore, then he fell to the ground.

"Crap!" Ambigious shouted and knelt down next to Unchosen. "You alright buddy?" he asked.

"Wow, what just happened?" Unchosen asked, he sounded very confused.

"You drank the potion and fell." freeZe said and then added: "Almost had my heart stopping." Then she turned to Fire. "What exactly happened? You said that an overdose results in death, so what exactly happened?"

Fire replied: "He wasn't at risk of death, some bodies react like this when given a high dose. It should take care of itself any moment now."

Unchosen was on his feet again and said, still somewhat dizzy: "Good thing I didn't die, so let's go."

Unchosen was the first to step out of the tunnel, which had started making strange noises.

"Get out of there, it is going to collapse!" He shouted.

He was right, a few seconds after they ran out of the tunnel the first bits of dirt and stone started falling down from the ceiling. They were now standing in the Graveyard of the Forest. Trees completely covered it in a thick layer of wood and leaves, it was dark but courtesy of the potion they could see, even without much light. At the first look it was a beautiful place but if you looked closer, there were skeletons and rotting corpses lying around in the dark, some were badly damaged as if something heavy had crushed them, other ones were caught up in arm thick vines with sharp spikes on them, impaling their ribcage and skull. At the third look, there were also all kinds of shining and glistening gems scattered around the floor, diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds were only a small part, most of the gems were less valuable. Also there were swords made of iron and armor made of gold and iron lying everywhere, some still on their former, now skeletal, wearers.

"That's disgusting." freeZe commented.

Fire said: "Yes, it is but we now need to focus on where we are going. And don't pick up any treasure, I promised Oalrhm not to take any, he draws his energy from it." He then pointed over into the valley. "There, five zombies, two skeletons, a creeper and three spiders. Remember what I told you about attacking a creeper's head? I will demonstrate it to you."

The monsters were still a good fifty meters away and hadn't spotted the group yet. The skeleton and the zombie looked the most disturbing as they were basically human, only skeletal or rotting. Fire took the bow from his back and put an arrow on the string, pulled it back and shot it at the creeper, it was a perfect headshot. At first nothing seemed to happen but then the creeper began to swell and exploded with a loud bang, echoing from the walls of the graveyard and ripping a large crater into the dirt. The blast killed three of the zombies, one skeleton and all three spiders.

"Oh, I see why." TehLulz said.

Fire nodded and put his bow onto his back again, instead he pulled out one of his stone swords and slowly walked towards the group of mobs in a crouching position, the others instinctively followed his example.

"Remember." Fire whispered. "Don't stand behind me, the skeleton will try to take out the most dangerous enemy first, which is me. I will have to dodge the arrows."

The others didn't say anything but nodded.

They were now only a few meters away from the group of mobs who were just standing around the crater the creeper had ripped into the ground. Suddenly the skeleton turned around and spotted them, put an arrow on the string of its bow and shot at Fire, he dodged the arrow with ease but the skeleton was already shooting the next one. Meanwhile the zombies walked towards Fire in their sluggish way of walking. But right before they reached the arrow dodging Fire, their heads fell off, behind them appeared Ambigious and TehLulz, grinning.

After seeing the other skeletons being executed in such a way, the remaining skeleton stopped shooting at Fire and shot at Ambigious instead, the arrow just got stuck in the wood. With a hiss of rage the skeleton shot another arrow, which hit a little higher, right under Ambigious' neck, but that was the last arrow the skeleton would shoot, Fire had already crushed its skull and broken its ribcage with a huge downward swing of his stone sword.

They didn't have much time to rest after that, they heard freeZe scream and as they turned around they saw that a spider had knocked her off her feet and was attempting to bite her head off. Unchosen, who was the closest to her, cut off two spider legs in one swing. Crippled by the pain the spider turned around to attack Unchosen. He ended its life with a well-placed sword stab through the arthropod's head.

"Thanks Unchosen." freeZe said while standing up.

"No problem." He answered quickly while looking for more mobs.

Fire said: "The next mobs are over there." And pointed over to the other side of the graveyard, where a few skeletons were standing, then he said "We don't care about them, just continue walking towards the other end."

Fire walked over to Ambigious and pulled the arrows out of his armor. They continued walking until freeZe spotted three creepers and an iron armored zombie.

"That will be difficult, our swords can't pierce its armor and I can't use the enchanted arrow again because there might be monsters capable of sensing magic in here. The enchantment I used on the Shop Guy sends out a strong pulse. I will need to go with a regular arrow or a lightly enchanted one and hope that it works. You four take out the creepers. And remember, no head hits." Fire explained.

The zombie looked just like a regular human in its iron armor, the visor was down, it was also holding an iron sword in his right hand, which seemed to be enchanted. Fire didn't take any chances and started firing away at the zombie. This wasn't ideal, the arrows were too short for him to properly pull back the bowstring, which reduced the speed of the arrows. After three arrows he noticed that the helmet had some kind of protective enchantment on it.

He sighed.

If the zombie's helmet was enchanted, he absolutely had to use enchanted arrows, he didn't want to attack in close combat unless he absolutely had to. He went through his mental list of enchantments with low energy pulse and found two suitable ones. One that drained magic and one that pierced armor. He couldn't use them both on the same arrow as the first one would neutralize the second one, the armor piercing one also was not guaranteed to work. In the meantime the zombie had come closer and was about twenty meters away from Fire. Fire couldn't see the others but he was assuming that they were doing well since he hadn't heard any explosions. Fire focused and put the arrow on the string, then he made a short low-pitched sound, a single enchantment rune appeared on the arrow. After being shot, the arrow was faintly glowing, nowhere near the light flash of the powerful armor shattering arrow.

As the arrow hit the zombie's helmet, there was another flash and the helmet stopped shining, the zombie didn't care about that and continued walking towards Fire, it was now only a few meters away, not enough time for Fire to shoot another arrow. Fire decided that he had to go for a close range attack, he circled around the zombie at high speed, then suddenly attacked.

He didn't attack the body, he attacked the right hand of the zombie. It fell off after Fire had placed a quick cut with the claw of his left index finger. The zombie tried to pick up his weapon again but failed because its hand was missing. Fire jumped into the air and kicked the zombie in the chest, making it fall over, then he picked up the iron sword. It was a bit damaged but enchanted, he was glad the zombie didn't hit him with it because it would have cut through his armor. Now Fire was using the zombie's sword against its former owner, cutting its head off.

When Fire looked for the others, he suddenly heard a high pitched sound, similar to that one when he threw the ghast fireball. A projectile hit the ground one meter to Fire's right, it seemed to be some kind of spell since there was nothing at the impact spot. Fire turned around and then he saw it. A skeleton, taller than the normal ones, it was wearing a blue and black robe with fitting cowl, a dark aura surrounded it, its eye sockets had blue glowing flames in them.

This was bad, in his current state Fire was not equipped to properly deal with a skeletal mage.

The skeleton raised its hand, moving its jaw like it was whispering unheard spells, a blue dot appeared above the hand it held up, growing into a glowing and pulsating ball. Then, suddenly the ball zoomed towards Fire, no matter how slow everything around Fire became, the projectile was just too fast for him to dodge…


	25. Chapter 24

The projectile was only an arm length away, Fire could feel it emitting massive amounts of energy. He knew what kind of spell this was, it absorbed energy from its target until its own energy was depleted. It was mostly used by mages against weaker targets, it was useless against other mages since their life force was too high for the projectile to have much of an effect. Fire didn't have all that much life force. The projectile was now only a few centimeters away from his chest, at the corner of his eye he could see the others, practically frozen by his slow vision. A thought started forming in Fire's mind, maybe he could…

Then suddenly, Fire disappeared and so did the projectile. freeZe, Ambigious, Unchosen and TehLulz stood there with their mouths open, their friend had just been disintegrated by a skeletal mage.

"Why did this have to happen?" Unchosen asked, voice filled with despair.

"I don't know…" freeZe said, she sounded sad, then she spoke again, this time with anger in her voice: "But this pile of rotting bones will pay for it!"

Everyone else stared at her, partly confused by her reaction, partly agreeing.

Ambigious was the first one to speak: "You are right, sister, let's show this thing who is boss!"

"Just let me handle this… just me." freeZe said.

Ambigious had never heard her so cold and determined. He instinctively backed off.

freeZe's eyes started glowing, not their normal lightless neon green glow, it was a deadly, brighter glow, a stare that could kill.

"I have no good feeling about this." Ambigious whispered to Unchosen "I have never seen her this angry."

freeZe took a deep breath and slowly started walking towards the skeletal mage, as she stared at it she noticed the runes carved into its bones and skull. She felt the anger inside her but besides the anger was another feeling, it was weak but it was there. The skeletal mage noticed her walking towards it, charged up another sphere. freeZe didn't even attempt to dodge it, it hit her right in the chest but she only felt a slight tingle.

The skeletal mage noticed that its attack was useless and instead whispered a few more unheard words, pieces of dirt were ripped out of the ground and formed a battleaxe made from bound magic. It grabbed the axe that was floating in front of it and moved in to attack, not very quickly, it was a skeleton and therefore not very strong. freeZe looked directly at the skeletal mage, her eyes were as brighter than ever before and even emitted light. Lightning was arcing between her fingers, the skeletal mage stopped for a second, reconsidering its attack but then continued moving.

freeZe couldn't think a clear thought, everything was blocked by one thing. Revenge. She had stopped moving on her own, her rage was guiding her but there was also this other feeling, which had become much stronger now. The lighting between her fingers became more frequent and more powerful, then suddenly, she jerked her hands upwards and let out a terrifying scream. A storm of fine lightning bolts, came out of her fingertips, searching for the skeletal mage. The mage noticed what was going on and had already built up a blue semitransparent barrier.

One of the fine lightning bolts found the shield, freeZe's mouth formed a devilish grin, a lightning bolt shot out of her left hand, making the barrier shatter into thousands of blue drops. freeZe put her hands together in front of her and an even larger lightning bolt hit the skeleton directly. The skeleton had its hands in a defensive position, which was more an instinctive reaction than real protection. Its bones shattered to dust, thunder echoed through the whole valley. The mage's robe, which seemed not to have taken any damage slowly floated down to the ground. In the middle of the dust cloud stood freeZe, her eyes were glowing and she was laughing a demonic laughter.

Suddenly, the light in her eyes disappeared, freeZe broke down. Ambigious was totally perplexed.

"What the hell did just happen? What the hell?" He muttered and ran over to freeZe and asked: "What the he…" Then he noticed that freeZe was crying.

"No… Fire… Why…?" She sobbed.

Ambigious knelt down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders, he didn't say anything because he knew it would be pointless. Unchosen and TehLulz were running over to them, both not less surprised than Ambigious but not nearly as overtly sad as freeZe.

"That is it then." TehLulz sighed. "The world is doomed."

"Shut up!" freeZe shouted while tears were running down her face.

"TehLulz is right, without Fire we don't have a chance of saving the server or the world by extension." Ambigious agreed, only Unchosen remained silent, apparently thinking about something.

Some minutes of silence later, occasionally interrupted by freeZe's sobbing, Unchosen spoke, his voice was sad but it had something to it that made them listen.

He said: "I know that it is hard for you but we need to move on, we just can't give this up, we just can't. Remember when Fire said that it doesn't save the world when we just sit around? We need to get to the end of this valley, or graveyard. If we die, we die. We will be in the quarry again, there is nothing we can do against that. But if we survive and make it to Fire's base, his sister can maybe help us get him out of the quarry."

"That makes sense." Ambigious said.

freeZe stood up, wiping some tears from her face.

"Okay, we can be sad later, we need to keep moving." She said.

Ambigious raised an eyebrow towards Unchosen and TehLulz, surprised by the sudden change of emotion freeZe had undergone, but he didn't say anything.

freeZe apparently decided to take the lead, still occasionally sniffling but dedicated to get out of the graveyard. As she came past where the skeletal mage had been, she picked up its robe. As soon as she touched it, a shiver went through her whole body, she heard ancient voices speaking words of wisdom, or was it complete nonsense?

freeZe dropped the robe.

Ambigious looked at her and asked: "What?"

"There are voices… in the robe." freeZe said toneless.

"What do you mean?" Ambigious asked, a little confused.

"I touched the robe and there were voices talking to me."

Unchosen scratched his chin. "That is not surprising, it is the robe of an undead mage after all."

freeZe said: "We shouldn't get caught up in trying to listen to voices in a robe, we need to keep moving. We need to reach Fire's base as quickly as possible. Through the swamp and in the jungle somewhere."

With those words freeZe picked the robe back up. Just as the voices started talking again, she packed the robe into her inventory, immediately silencing them.


	26. Chapter 25

They were suddenly interrupted by arrows being shot at them, a group of five skeletons stood at a distance, lined up like a firing squad.

"Do your lightning thing again!" Ambigious said.

"I don't know how!" freeZe replied as three arrows impacted her chestplate and got stuck in the wood.

Unchosen commanded: "Surround them!"

Nobody questioned why he suddenly was calling the shots, they spread out. More and more arrows got stuck in their armor, it was only a question of time for one of the skeletons to hit an unprotected head.

Ambigious charged into the group of skeletons, smashing one skeleton's spine in half, separating torso and legs. He knocked another one to the ground with his weight. With him being very close to the other skeletons he was an easy target, all three had their bows pulled back, ready to shoot him. Ambigious dropped to the ground just in time to dodge the arrows. TehLulz and freeZe had already beheaded two of the skeletons by the time he was back on his feet.

The skeleton Ambigious had knocked to the ground had ran away at a speed unusual for skeletons and put another arrow on the string as the other remaining skeleton got crushed between Unchosen's and Ambigious' swords. The last skeleton shot its arrow just before freeZe cut off its arms with two slashes and then put an end to its un-life. The arrow however hit its target, or more accurately, a target. The target was Ambigious' right arm.

He screamed in pain and dropped his sword as the tip of the arrow pierced the vines around his upper arm and the flesh below it, it stopped as it hit Ambigious' upper arm bone. Ambigious stopped screaming but stomped on the ground to give the pain another exit. With tears blurring his vision he reached over with his left arm, grabbed the shaft of the arrow and pulled it out of his arm, which sent another wave of pain through his body. His knees felt weak but he managed to stay upright, blood was leaking from the wound and ran down his arm, dripping onto the ground. His sister was the first to get to him, Unchosen and TehLulz followed. The steelwood vines grew back together, stopping the blood from flowing but not the pain.

"Damn, that hurts!" Ambigious pressed out between his teeth.

"Can you keep walking?" freeZe asked.

"Yeah but I won't be able to fight anymore. Let's get out of this damned place." He answered.

freeZe pulled the arrows out of Ambigious' armor and more out of her own, Unchosen collected the arrows and put them into his inventory. Unchosen also took a bow from one of the shattered skeletons.

Without further words they started walking again, Ambigious with his right arm hanging down. They could already see the exit, their hopes went up again. Then they saw what was in front of the exit. A horde of about a dozen and a half zombies, none had armor or weapons but their numbers were deadly enough.

"What now?" TehLulz asked "We can't run past them, they are too close to the exit."

"You are right." Ambigious agreed.

"Does anybody have something that could be useful?" TehLulz asked.

"I have… a diamond pickaxe." freeZe said "Couldn't we just dig below them?"

"Oalrhm wouldn't like us digging through his roots." Unchosen warned and then said: "But I have some gunpowder from those creepers we killed. If we had some sand we could make TNT."

Ambigious looked into his inventory and said: "I don't have sand but I still have a ton of this sandbasalt, why did I even take that with me…?"

"That could work, I have the crafting table we used." TehLulz said and put it down.

"Give me the sandbasalt please." Unchosen said.

He laid his hands on the crafting table and opened the crafting screen. He put the gunpowder in a cross shape and sandbasalt into the remaining slots.

"Wow, it even gives me two!" He said and held up a block of TNT. "Does anybody still have flint and steel?" He asked.

freeZe gave him her flint and steel and asked: "How will you ignite it without being lunged at?"

"Stand back, you will see." He said in a mysterious voice.

Ambigious, TehLulz and freeZe backed up a few meters. Unchosen placed the TNT on the ground and took some wood strips from his inventory, he tied them to a stick that he crafted from a log. He put one end of the stick into the ground and lit the other end on fire, then drove the unlit end into the ground. He then tied more wood strips to one of the arrows he had on him.

Unchosen ran up to the horde and placed down both blocks of TNT. He then sprinted back to the burning stick, the horde slowly starting to walk his way. He put the prepared arrow on the string of the bow he had taken from one of the skeletons, used the burning stick to light it on fire and shot at the block of TNT. A few seconds later, the lit explosives were in the middle of the horde and a moment later another loud bang echoed through the valley, rotting body parts were flung through the air. Not a single zombie had survived.

"Gross…" freeZe said as a rotten eyeball landed in front of her feet.

"But effective." Unchosen said with pride in his voice, he added: "Now let's get out of here!"

They were halfway through the tunnel as they saw light on the other end, they didn't know how long they had been in the valley, but it had felt like an entire day to them.

"Look, light!" freeZe said, noticeably relieved.

"Now, that we are out of danger, let's get a move on." TehLulz said.

A few minutes later, they were at the exit of the tunnel, which was mostly grown over by vines. TehLulz cut a hole into the plant wall using his sword and went through first. The light blinded them at first but then they could see where they were.

In front of them was a large flat area. Shallow, brown water streams were flowing in the lower areas, sometimes interrupted by deep, black ponds. Tall, dark green grass and sugar cane were growing all over the parts that were above the water. Huge willow trees were growing here and there, casting shadows where they were standing, in the distance they could see a witch hut, dramatically illuminated by the setting sun.

"Let's go there and hope that witches are not hostile by default here." freeZe suggested.

"It's the best idea we have right now I guess. I also really need to take this armor off…" TehLulz said.

"Mind helping me out with my armor?" Ambigious asked.

The moment freeZe tried pulling her arms out of the vines, it seemed like they were growing backwards, disappearing into the chestplate again, so did the vines at her legs.

"Well, that is handy…" she muttered.

After pulling the chestplate over her head and storing it in her inventory she helped her brother out of his armor. Ambigious tried not to show that his arm was hurting but the look on his face changed a little as freeZe put her brother's arm through the side of the armor.

Unchosen looked at the gaping wound, it at least had stopped bleeding. He said: "Let's also hope that this witch us willing to give us some regen potions or at least some bandages…"


	27. Chapter 26

Navigating the swamp terrain was more difficult than they thought. The swamp was divided into islands by the shallow brown water channels, which made it hard to travel in a straight line. They could not walk through them since there were several meters of sludge at the bottom of them, going by boat also was no option since the water was usually too shallow. They had to find their way on the land, sometimes jumping over narrow sections of water or balancing on small spots of dirt only held above water by grass roots. The tall grass was thick and their feet got caught in it more often than not, so they had little time to look at the beautiful scenery of lily pads drifting around in the currents and the willow leaves being gently moved by the wind, they instead looked down at their feet looking out for roots and grass knots.

TehLulz had taken the lead, he said: "That witch hut isn't really coming closer, the sun is setting and we still haven't found anything for Ambigious."

"And my arm feels like it will fall off any second." Ambigious complained.

"And Fire has all the food and the water." freeZe added.

Only Unchosen didn't say anything, his gaze went over to the witch hut, which was still pretty far away and seemed to be between the branches of a big willow tree. He wondered how their encounter with the witch would be. Would the NPC communicate with them, or more importantly, would they would die from a splash potion to the face.

"You are right TehLulz, it really is getting dark." He said a bit later, then he added: "If it gets any darker, we will be at danger of falling into a pond without even knowing."

"You're damn right, we need to get to that hut." Ambigious said and pressed his teeth together, probably because of another wave of pain from the wound.

TehLulz stepped around a root that was sticking out from the ground and asked: "Ambigious, how are you still walking with that wound in your arm?"

Ambigious replied: "I can ignore the pain, mostly. If the pain stays constant, I can ignore it, but if something touches the wound it hurts a lot."

They walked through the swampland for another hour without saying much, meanwhile the sun was setting and the stars came out. Luckily it was almost full moon this day so that they could keep walking with the amount of light it gave off. They had come significantly closer to the witch hut but it was still pretty far away.

Unchosen said: "We need to sleep, I am tired from the fighting and the walking."

"We all are." freeZe agreed "Let's build a shelter if we can."

"I have some wood." Unchosen stated and promptly started building a wooden box.

"This will do, I guess…" TehLulz commented on the five-by-five box.

They laid down on the wooden floor and left Ambigious the biggest space, Ambigious himself instantly fell asleep and even missed the opportunity to make a dirty joke about his sister having to sleep right next to TehLulz and Unchosen.

The next morning they were woken up by a scream. The one screaming was Ambigious, he was pressing his left hand against the wound in a reflex reaction.

"Aaah… Okay, I was wrong yesterday. I can't ignore… Aaah… the pain, it was Fire's potion…" He said with his teeth bared, trying to suppress the pain.

"That is bad news." TehLulz said, who was still sleepy, then he looked around in the box and asked: "Where did Unchosen go?"

He stood up and went outside while freeZe helped her brother stand up. The first thing he saw when he was outside was Unchosen leaning over a crafting bench, the second thing were three boats still lying on the land that Unchosen hat apparently crafted.

"Morning." Unchosen said shortly.

"Morning Unchosen… Why did you make boats, the water isn't deep enough." TehLulz wanted to know.

Unchosen looked away from his crafting bench and faced TehLulz, he said: "Take a look below the water! It's deeper here, it seems like somebody has dug out a decent portion of the sludge. It was too dark to see it yesterday." Unchosen walked over to the edge of the water and said: "Look."

There was in fact a narrow passage where the water was deeper, deep enough for boats to go through.

"That is great!" TehLulz said, notably relieved.

Unchosen replied: "We only have one problem."

"Which is?" TehLulz wondered.

Unchosen explained: "Paddles. We don't have a way to make paddles with a crafting table. I was waiting for you to wake up to help me make some. However, it seems like Ambigious needs some medical attention soon. I am certain that if he does not get anything he will die."

"Dying is not fun. I don't want to do that." They heard Ambigious shout from the box, he was trying to make it sound funny but failed.

Unchosen asked: "Mind coming to me Ambigious?"

Ambigious, supporting himself with his left arm on freeZe, slowly came towards Unchosen, who quickly walked over to him as he saw that even walking caused him pain. Unchosen took a look at Ambigious' wound and worry came to his face.

"It looks like it is infected. No wonder, those arrows must have been lying in a place filled with corpses and undead for quite some time."

"So, I will become a zombie now or what?" Ambigious asked, a little confused.

"That would be one possibility, the other one is that you just die."

Ambigious asked: "Okay Unchosen, how do you know that and how do you manage to say that I will die without even sounding worried."

Unchosen put his right hand to the back of his neck and replied: "I am a doctor, it's my job. I have to tell people that they will die on a weekly basis. That is why." He paused for a few seconds and then added: "But now it is important that I give you something that at least keeps the wound from getting even worse."

Unchosen took a long flexible willow branch from his inventory and started wrapping it around Ambigious' arm, covering the wound in the leaves. Ambigious tried his best not to flinch as Unchosen tightened the makeshift bandage.

Unchosen said: "That will keep dirt from getting into the wound, sadly I didn't find any plants with healing properties nearby, most plants that are not grass seem to have been trampled or eaten by something."

Unchosen pointed at the boats and explained: "As you might have heard, the water is deep enough to ride a boat through, but we still need paddles."

TehLulz called: "Hey, I have an idea!"

"Which is?" Ambigious wanted to know.

"We could craft wooden shovels and use those as paddles." TehLulz said with a grin.

Unchosen answered: "That is actually a very good idea, let me quickly make those."

After these words he went to his crafting table again and quickly made three wooden shovels. He gave one to freeZe and one to TehLulz, keeping one for himself.

Ambigious asked: "And which boat will I be in?"

Unchosen explained: "You will be in a boat with TehLulz, he is the strongest of us aside from you, freeZe and I get a boat each."

They pushed the boats into the water one after the other, TehLulz and Ambigious got into the first one, freeZe into the second one and Unchosen jumped into the third one. They started paddling along the waterway slowly, always careful not to run on ground. The splashes of their improvised paddles and the quiet sound of their boats gliding through the water were the only sounds they heard for the next half hour.

Paddling along the narrow water way was not a very exciting task, they only had one way to go and they weren't going very quickly. They were moving past willow trees and lily pads, oddly enough, they didn't see a single living creature besides plants in the swamp. The witch hut had come significantly closer and they now could clearly see that it was built on a willow tree, even though there was plenty of flat space right next to the tree.

freeZe broke the quiet: "Something is strange about this swamp…"

TehLulz asked: "What do you mean?"

"I mean, no animals, trampled plants, which should not be trampled without animals…" She answered.

"Now that you say it, it is pretty strange indeed." Unchosen muttered.

After a few minutes of silence, they came to a large deep pond. Several more waterways were extending from it into different directions.

"Okay, where to go now?" TehLulz asked, looking at Unchosen.

Unchosen replied: "That one seems to be going to the witch hut, there we can at least get something for Ambigious' arm. If we're lucky…"

They paddled over to the water way, which seemed to lead towards the witch hut. They moved towards the hut in a straight line, following the water way, hoping they would find something there. Unchosen looked over to Ambigious, who had fallen asleep, his worrying gaze on his friend's feverishly red face.

"If we don't find something in the next few days, the fever will kill him… If not today." He thought to himself.


	28. Chapter 27

An additional hour of paddling later only a few hundred meters separated them from the witch hut but those meters seemed to be a very long distance to them. Fire's potion had completely worn off, their whole bodies were hurting. Wearing the wooden armor had left its marks on them, dozens of small splinters that they hadn't noticed before were all under their skin. Their shoulders were bruised by the weight, the constant paddling didn't make it easier on their arms.

As if to make their situation even more desperate, Ambigious' fever had increased even more, he had started muttering words they couldn't understand. Each and every paddle stroke was painful to them, they progressed at a snail's pace. The witch hut was growing on their horizons at a slow, almost torturing speed. Every time they forced themselves to draw their wooden shovels through the water an additional time, they pressed their teeth together in pain but without making a sound.

Seemingly endless minutes of paddling later, freeZe broke the silence, her voice was tired and weak: "How far is this going to be? TehLulz, how far? Any idea? My vision is all blurry."

TehLulz' voice was in a similar condition, he answered: "About one-hundred and fifty meters, I don't know." He sighed "Even if we can find Fire, we won't be able to carry on like this."

"How is my brother?" freeZe asked.

TehLulz interrupted his painful paddling and knelt down to look at Ambigious. He put his hand on his friend's forehead and pulled it back immediately.

"It feels like he is burning!" he said.

"That doesn't sound like an illness I know." Unchosen replied, did a paddle stroke and added: "I would not be surprised if there are more illnesses in here too. As Fire said, everything is harder… If only Fire were here right now."

They stopped talking and focused on moving their boats towards the witch hut. Every additional stroke of their paddles, every movement, seemed to take an eternity to them. They were so focused on doing their task that TehLulz didn't notice at first that the front of his boat had hit land. He did one more paddle stroke before he realized that they had arrived. A numb feeling of triumph filled his body and made the pain go away, he almost forgot to get Ambigious out of the boat. He put his arms below his sleeping friend and lifted him up with ease, in any other situation it would have surprised him how easy it seemed to him but his vision was blurry and he could only think about one thing: Getting to the witch hut.

freeZe and Unchosen seemed to have the same feeling as they hopped from one boat to the other and to the land as if they hadn't walked through a hellish world, as if they hadn't climbed a mountain, as if they hadn't gone through all what they did go through. With a feeling of euphoria, all three ran towards the tree with the witch hut on it with long elastic steps.

The witch hut, despite being on a tree, was more a hut between the branches than a real tree house, as if it had been lifted up there by giant arms. It didn't sit on any supporting structures or had any ropes that held it in the tree. It was simply built, a square house with a flat roof, a window on each side, the only way to get up was a rope ladder hanging down from a small balcony in front of the door.

TehLulz went up first, with Ambigious over his right shoulder, climbing with only his left hand, once he was up, he broke the simple wooden door lock with ease and went inside. The inside was not very well lit and barely decorated, just a crafting table, a furnace with a brewing stand on top of it and a chest beside it, the rest of the house was hidden behind a separating wall. freeZe and Unchosen came up after him, they walked past the wall, they couldn't see much because their eyes had to get used to the light, but then they saw something. Suddenly TehLulz felt Ambigious' weight on his shoulder, he almost threw him down to the ground, so fast did he put him down. Their minds cleared, they felt the pain in their arms and all over their bodies again, something had knocked them out of their trance violently.

On the ground was a figure lying on its back, clothed in torn white clothes, the figure was very tall and had a black scaled skin, pieces of shattered wood and torn vines were lying all around it, on a closer look they could see that the figure had a bow on their back. This normally wouldn't be a reason for sadness, but the reason their trance had been broken was the chest of the figure, a deep gaping wound was right in the middle where the heart was.

"Fire?" freeZe stuttered and knelt down next to the body.

They expected their reunion with Fire to be better, happier or at least a little more glorious. They hoped that Fire would make everything better again, Fire would help them.

"Fire…"

Fire had always been a bright light in their lives on the server, he seemed do know everything and have a plan for every situation. Wasn't it Fire who guaranteed them not to be hungry in the quarry, who guided them through the Nether, who risked his life to protect them from the magma cube, who helped them climb the mountain, who made their armor, who convinced Oalrhm to open the tunnel, who fought mobs with them… who died, trying to save the world.

Now that they saw what happened, they knew that they wouldn't be able to save the world on their own, they were tired, hurting and Ambigious was close to death. Fire would respawn in the quarry and the hackers would put him in some jail where he would just have to wait to die in the real world.

"No pulse, no respiration… dead." Unchosen confirmed, trying not to look at the wound in Fire's chest, fighting the tears.

Also TehLulz and freeZe tried not to cry but then, all of them gave up their resistance and threw themselves to the ground. Even Ambigious seemed to have noticed something, he started rolling around in his fever, he again started muttering unintelligible things.

After lying there for a few minutes TehLulz heard something, someone was going up the ladder, without a doubt the witch. He forced himself to stand up, ignoring the pain and sadness, now it was important not to anger the witch and maybe get her to help them, maybe there was some hope left. Unchosen and freeZe were still on the ground, apparently not noticing that he got up. TehLulz heard a female voice cursing, the witch had noticed that somebody had broken into her hut. He heard the door open and took a peek around the corner and then instantly pulled his head back to avoid being seen. The witch didn't really look like the usual witches in Minecraft, she seemed to be much younger, also her clothes weren't purple and she wasn't wearing a hat. Her clothes were green, too wide to be normal clothes and not wide enough to be a robe, they seemed to be woven from grass or reeds. TehLulz heard her voice, it sounded like a normal human voice, she sounded angry but also a little scared.

She said: "Who is there?"

TehLulz had to force himself to answer, his knees were shivering, so was his voice: "Please don't kill us."

He couldn't come up with something better but it seemed to have worked, he heard how the witch breathed out in relief. TehLulz slowly came out behind the wall, it came to his mind how funny he might look, a man with messy shoulder long brown hair in a black suit, which was completely ruined. A thought crossed his mind and despite the situation he chuckled to himself, he almost looked like a secret agent lost in the wild. But of course the witch didn't know what a secret agent was, she only saw that he needed help. However she first wanted to know a little more about the intruder inside her house. TehLulz took a closer look at the witch, she was slim and tall, her dark brown hair was very long, it almost reached down to the ground. Her eyes were as green as her clothes, her skin was pale, almost white. She was also missing the wart on her nose that the witches in Minecraft had, her face was actually quite beautiful.

"Who are you?" she asked, still with a fair bit of distrust in her voice.

He answered, still with a little bit of insecurity in his voice: "I am a traveler, my friends are in here too, one of them is mortally wounded and one is sick."


	29. Chapter 28

"How did this mortally wounded friend and this sick friend get up here?" The witch asked.

"That is hard to explain." TehLulz said with a weak voice, then added: "We found the wounded one up here, we don't know how he got here. We came through the Graveyard of the Forest…"

She interrupted him: "What? You went through there? Why would you do that? That is suicide!"

"I will explain everything to you later, please help them." TehLulz begged.

The witch noticed that TehLulz was very serious and asked: "They are behind the wall, right?"

TehLulz instinctively grabbed her hand and pulled her behind the wall, he was surprised how soft her skin was for somebody living in the wilderness, it was strange how panic made you notice the most irrelevant things. She followed him and took a sharp breath as she saw the scenery behind the wall. freeZe, her brother and Unchosen were lying on the floor, all three with scratches all over their skin, only that Ambigious' skin was all red and sweaty, freeZe and Unchosen seemed to have passed out from the exhaustion. Fire looked the worst with the gaping wound in his chest and his shattered wooden armor all around him. His peaceful face and his relaxed position were an intense contrast to the rest of his body.

"By all the herbs of the forest… How did that happen?" The witch whispered.

It was easy to notice that the witch hadn't expected something like this, maybe she expected a broken bone or a spider bite but she definitely hadn't expected a hole in the chest.

TehLulz answered: "We don't know… But can you help him?"

She swallowed and answered: "I can't do much but I will try my best. What does the sick person have?"

TehLulz noticed that he was still holding the witch's hand and quickly let go.

He explained: "His skin is burning hot, he got hit by an arrow in the Graveyard, see that bandage? Unchosen made that… err that is him." He pointed at his friend.

"I know what it is, at least I can save him. It is blaze fever. Please don't tell me you have been to the Nether too." She said, looking at TehLulz as she began to realize the extent of what they had been through.

"We have been to the Nether, yes." He replied.

Without saying more she walked into the first room again and searched her chest for a potion, muttering words that sounded like curses. After half a minute she found what she was looking for, a glass bottle that look looked like its creator had made it in haste. It had a glowing orange liquid inside it. She walked over to TehLulz, gave him a nod and knelt down next to Ambigious, careful not to step on anybody else.

She commanded: "Please hold his mouth open and make sure he swallows."

TehLulz knelt down next to her and lifted Ambigious' body up into an upright position, trying not to flinch as his already hurting skin was exposed to the heat of Ambigious' body. He tilted his friend's head backwards and opened his mouth. A single nonsensical word escaped Ambigious before the witch poured the potion into his mouth, luckily nothing got into Ambigious' lungs. The potion instantly seemed to take effect.

"What potion was that?" TehLulz asked.

"Fire Resistance, easy as that." The witch replied, not without pride.

"How will we save Fire now?" TehLulz wanted to know.

"Fire? His name is Fire? I know that name from somewhere…" The witch said and scratched her chin.

TehLulz was puzzled, he asked: "From where?"

"Wait… Wait… I know! My mother told me that a… someone named Fire had been here a long time ago." She answered and added: "You know, when I was younger"

"Where is your mother now? And who was your father?" TehLulz asked, immediately cursing himself for asking invasive questions when there were more important things at hand.

"My mother is dead, I don't know who my father is, might be somebody from the village near here." She answered, paused and then said: "I can't guarantee you that Fire will live but I can try at least."

TehLulz was baffled, he said slowly: "Wait. He is not dead? I though he was and hoped that you could revive him."

She replied: "He looks like he is dead but there is something inside him keeping him alive, I can feel it. Do you have any idea what it could be?"

TehLulz realized something: "Aaah! It might be the golden apple concentrate we drank."

"You have golden apple concentrate too? You can't go a minute without surprising me…" She muttered.

"Yes, we have that. Fire always has it on him, it should be in his coat."

The witch knelt down next to Fire and pulled the ragged rests of his coat away from the wound in his chest. Her face was now right above the wound, TehLulz didn't know what she was doing but he assumed that she was inspecting it. She sighed and raised her hand above the wound, pointing middle and index finger in its direction.

"What?" He asked but didn't get an answer.

Suddenly a cold wind seemed to blow through the hut as the witch whispered a single word. At first nothing happened but then the light inside the room seemed to come alive, it left its place on the walls and was drawn to the witch's fingers, illuminating the wound with all its gruesome details. Fire's skin looked like it had been torn apart by an immense force, the same force had also torn away the muscles and parts of the ribcage below. At the bottom of the wound TehLulz could see something that looked like a lacerated heart, strangely no blood was in the heart or in any other part of the wound. TehLulz stared at the wound for a brief moment that seemed to be an eternity to him, then the light snapped back into its place without a warning and shadows covered the wound again.

The witch seemed to be as horrified as he was, judging by the part of her face he could see, her eyes were still wide open. She held her hand open above Fire's chest and seemed to be looking for something, then she reached inside Fire's coat and pulled the bottle with the golden apple concentrate out.

"That wound is worse than I thought… Did you see his heart?" She said with a shivering voice.

TehLulz wanted to know once again: "Can you help him?"

"I may be able to. Now that we have this potion I can try… Where did you get it?"

"Fire made it. You seem to know what it does but I don't know the whole story behind this potion, only Fire can answer that question." He replied.

She sighed again and uncorked the bottle, which was so much more beautiful than her own potion bottles. Now TehLulz noticed the fine decorations in the glass, they looked like vines winding around the bottle from the bottom up. They were not carved into the bottle, the vines were made from fine strips of glass. The witch also seemed to notice that and slid her hand over the bottle to feel the fine structures.

Without a word, she let a single drop drip into Fire's wound. That reminded TehLulz of something, Fire had done exactly the same before they talked to Oalrhm. A sudden thought flashed through his mind. What if Oalrhm had been dead or at least without life? Didn't he say that Fire "awoke" him? Didn't he hear Fire saying something to freeZe about life force in the cave on the mountainside? He had been half asleep but he generally understood what Fire had been talking about.

Then he knew it: "The potion increases life force. That is why Fire is still alive… or not dead… and now it will bring him back." He muttered to himself.

The witch heard that and nodded. She stood up and sat down next to him, staring at Fire. She had tears in her eyes, it made him want to cry again as well. He put his arm around the witch's slim shoulders and they both hoped for the best.


	30. Chapter 29

A few minutes had passed since the witch had sat down next to him.

TehLulz asked: "How is living here, in the swamp?"

"It is a quiet and calm life, I can say that." She answered. "During the day I go around collecting herbs, during the night I am here, sleeping or brewing."

"How often do people pass by?" He asked.

"Not very often and they generally leave me be, they are just passing by on the way to the village near here." She stood up and walked over to her chest and searched it for something.

TehLulz wanted to know: "What are you looking for?"

She replied: "You'll see."

"Okay…" He answered, a little confused.

He looked over to his sleeping friends and a smile went over his face, they were together again. Seeing Fire however caused a sting in his stomach, he was not sure if he was going to make it, but on the other hand he knew how powerful the golden apple concentrate was.

He heard the witch say: "Found it."

She came into the room holding a pointy metal object in both hands.

"Look." She said and sat down next to him again.

TehLulz asked: "Is that a… knife?"

She demanded: "Yes, take a closer look."

TehLulz took the knife from her hands and looked at it closely, it was about as long as Fire's claws but shaped like you would expect a knife to be shaped. It seemed to be made from a dark metal, it was etched with ornaments of herbs and other plants.

"Those ornaments are like the ones on Fire's bottle…" TehLulz mumbled.

"Yes, that was why I was stopped after seeing them. They reminded me of this knife." She said.

TehLulz wanted to know: "Where did you get that?"

"A travelling merchant gave it to me after I healed someone from his caravan convoy, they were bitten by a spider, a very nasty bite but by far not as, you know, Fire's wound."

He answered: "Don't remind me of in what danger he is, you have done everything you could."

The witch said: "There is something about his condition that doesn't leave my mind though. I know that golden apple concentrate can sustain life but I never knew that it can do so to such a high degree. The only other potion I am aware of that can do such a thing is deathsleep poison."

TehLulz asked: "What does it do?"

"It suspends your entire metabolism and functionally turns you into a corpse. At the same time it prevents any of the decay that comes with being dead. Once the poison wears off or someone gives you the antidote you wake up. It's notoriously hard to brew since even a small mistake can lead to death."

He said: "While that's interesting I would really like to take my mind off of Fire, at least for a little while."

"You are right. Let's talk about something else." She replied.

"About that knife, did the merchant say where he got it from?" He asked.

The witch answered: "He said that he bought it from a blacksmith in Rockhaven."

"Hmm… That might be the same person who made the bottle, or the same group of people."

For the next few minutes they just sat there and looked at the knife, partly because the patterns were so detailed that TehLulz discovered something new every time he looked at the knife. The other reason was that if they looked at the knife, they didn't have to look at Fire.

TehLulz was just looking at the metal image of an herb he had never seen before as a thought flashed through his mind.

"Do you think that Fire uses bottles somebody else makes for his potions?" He asked the witch.

She scratched her head and replied: "Hmm… I don't know much about Fire but from what my mother told me he doesn't seem to be the kind of person."

"If I think about it, you are right… especially with all the knowledge he has…"

"What knowledge do you mean?" She asked, a little confused.

TehLulz answered: "He's been around for a long time. And, you know, the knowledge from the Books of Knowledge."

"Haven't those been lost?"

"Oh right, you don't know about that…" TehLulz said and then explained: "Fire stole them from there, he said that somebody might abuse them."

She asked: "How did he get into that town? I have never been there but from all what my mother told me, that town is a fortress."

"When I think about it, there is a whole lot we don't know about Fire."

TehLulz wanted to say something but he wasn't sure how the witch would react when he talked about the server, she was an NPC after all.

She looked outside through the open door and asked: "Look at the sunset, isn't it beautiful?"

It took him a few seconds to realize that it was already evening.

He just said: "It is."

She suddenly said: "We should go to sleep."

"Where do you sleep here, I haven't seen a bed in here."

She chuckled: "I sleep on the floor, those plants I am wearing keep me warm."

TehLulz looked at her and replied: "I have been sleeping on hard ground since we started, why not sleep on hard ground for one more night?"

He laid down on the floor, careful not to touch any of his friends with his feet and fell asleep within a few minutes. The last thing that he saw was the witch storing the knife in the chest and walking over to him.


	31. Chapter 30

The bus had been driving for six hours now, Irene was leaning her head against the window. It was around midnight, it was dark outside, the only things she could see were the red tail lights of cars overtaking the bus.

Irene was tall and slim, she had long blonde hair and blue eyes. To her right side sat Mary, her best friend and classmate. She was shorter than Irene but just as slim, her eyes were brown, so was her fairly short hair. There were eleven more passengers in the bus, their classmates. They were playing games, talking, sleeping or just sitting there staring at the seat in front of them.

They were on the trip back from a two-week holiday the teachers had booked for them, the reason for this unusual gesture was that they were the best class their school had ever had, every single person had more or less perfect grades. This didn't mean that they were the most united class the school had ever had, their success was greatly based on rivalries and competition. Everyone had at one other student they were in direct conflict with. Over time, groups had formed, each group trying to be better than the other two. The five boys in the class were always sticking together, in learning and everywhere else too. The girls were divided into two groups, one consisting of three girls and one of five girls, Irene and Mary were in the bigger group of the two.

Irene thought about the past two weeks. The sea, the beach, the hotel, the town, the party on the last day…

Suddenly Mary poked her from the side.

"What?" Irene asked.

Mary wanted to know: "What are you thinking about?"

"The last two weeks, they went by so fast."

"They really did." Mary agreed.

Irene was just about to say something but she was interrupted by the bus driver speaking through the speakers on the ceiling: "Okay, in fifteen minutes we will reach our first set-down point. The students getting off the bus there are…" He paused while looking at the list, yawned and continued. "Peter. Nobody else? Alright, just Peter."

Peter was sitting in the same row as Irene and Mary, he had two seats for himself, his buddies were occupying the two rows behind him. Peter lifted up his head, still half asleep, stretched his arms and yawned. He was very tall and had short brown hair and green eyes. Peter had somehow managed it to snake his way through the minefield that were the rivalries between the groups and individuals. He had managed to remain at least somewhat liked by everyone. He was still part of the boy's group, however he also was one of Irene's closer friends.

"Where was I…" Irene said to herself and then said to Mary: "Do you think there will ever be a class reunion?"

Mary shook her head: "I don't think so. And if there is, I won't go."

To their right Peter stood up and hit his head on the ceiling.

"Ow… Damn." He said quietly in his deep voice, then proceeded to gather his luggage from his seats and the overhead storage.

For the next ten minutes Irene and Mary were just sitting there, trying to fall asleep, they both would get off the bus in over an hour. They were woken up by Peter standing up and going to the back end of the bus, saying goodbye to everybody as he was walking back to his seat. Irene and Mary were looking at him when he arrived.

"Goodbye Mary, goodbye Irene." He just said.

They replied at the same time: "Goodbye Peter."

Peter turned around as if he wanted to go to the front of the bus but then he stopped and turned towards them again.

"And by the way Irene…" He said.

"What?" Something about his tone worried Irene "Everything okay?"

Peter took a deep breath and said: "I wanted to get this over with earlier but I have been putting it off over and over again and I'm afraid now is the last opportunity."

Irene was getting increasingly confused. She asked: "What do you mean?"

She noticed that everybody in the bus had become awfully quiet and some were looking in her direction.

Peter said: "Well, to make it short…" He paused and took another deep breath. "I fell in love with you two years ago…"

Irene's jaw dropped and she turned bright red, she didn't know what to say.

"I… err… you… what?" she stuttered.

"It is okay." Peter said and put his arm on Irene's shoulder. "I knew the outcome of this long ago. I have to go now… and I doubt that you'd want me to drive you home now." He smiled and said: "Goodbye Irene."

The moment he said that, the bus stopped and Peter left, Irene could see him walking over to his car, not looking back over his shoulder. Before he got into his car she believed to see him wipe tears from his eyes but it might have been her imagination.

As soon as the bus started driving again, everybody started talking, Irene could hear little bits of dialogue.

"Man, I feel bad for him."

"She didn't deserve him anyway."

"Why the hell did he do that?"

Irene even saw how a boy grudgingly gave money to a girl, they seemed to have made a bet on the outcome.

Mary asked aloud: "So are we two the only ones who didn't know about this?"

Matthew, a short blonde haired boy replied, somewhat quietly: "Yes."

"I didn't want an answer." Mary snapped and gave him a look that made him flinch as if he had been hit.

Only now Irene discovered a small roll of paper in her lap, Peter must have dropped it when he put his hand on her shoulder. She unrolled it and read the text in Peter's scrawly handwriting.

* * *

Call me when you are at home, I would like to take some time to talk.

-Peter

* * *

Irene had to think about what happened. One of her best friends had asked her if she loved him, indirectly at least, and she just sat there. What kind of person was she to break her friend's heart? She should have seen it earlier.

"Don't worry about it." Mary said, who guessed what Irene was thinking.

"Hm?" Irene asked.

"Peter has been through worse, you know how he is, he can take losses. And he said that he knew the outcome, he just wanted to make sure he wasn't wrong. Not knowing can be worse than rejection. Just call him like he told you to."

"But I don't know if I can bring myself to talk to him now that I did this…" Irene said, tears suddenly in her eyes.

"So, you do love him?" Mary asked, somewhat confused.

Irene replied: "I… I think I do."

Suddenly they heard a crash and were flung forward. Some students were in a daze, most started screaming. Irene lived through these moments like in slow motion, she saw how the luggage flew through the bus, how her classmates desperately tried to hold onto their seats. The bus hit the ground hard and as they thought it was over, it started rolling. Nobody was wearing seat belts, so everybody was flying through the inside of the bus as it started to roll downhill faster and faster. Irene felt a sharp sting in her neck, then everything went black in front of her eyes. The last thing she felt was deep regret.

* * *

"Terrible bus accident." Steven read the headline to his family.

Steven was a dark skinned man with greying hair and brown eyes, he was sitting on the table with his wife and his two daughters, eating breakfast and reading the newspaper.

He quickly read over the article and told his family a brief summary: "Seems like a bus driver fell asleep while driving, the bus broke through the crash barrier on a bridge and rolled down into a valley. Nobody in the bus survived."

"Who were the people in the bus?" Janet, his younger daughter asked.

Steven replied: "Students, the best of the whole country. Such a shame, so many wasted lives."

"Does it say anything else?" His wife Lily wanted to know.

Steven took a look at the article again and said: "Here it says that this man named Peter survived, he got out of the bus shortly before the accident."

His elder daughter Olivia said: "How is he at the moment? I wouldn't be surprised if he is at a psychiatrist right now."

"Actually he is not, it says that he refused all help. I guess that's what trauma can do to people. Don't see the trouble they are in." Steven said.

A few minutes after that Steven got up and said: "I have to go now, my patients are sure getting impatient."

He chuckled at his own joke and left the room.


	32. Chapter 31

TehLulz opened his eyes immediately close them again, his vision was blurry and he was still very sleepy.

"Dude." A familiar voice said, he wasn't sure but it seemed to belong to Ambigious.

TehLulz was about to sit up as he heard the voice again. "Stay down, I need to get her away from you first."

After hearing that he noticed that the witch was lying right next to him, half leaning on him would describe it better. Any movement TehLulz would make now could wake her up. Ambigious reached over his friend with his hands and tried to carefully push the witch away from his friend without waking her up. Suddenly a sting of pain went up Ambigious' arm.

"Damn it! I almost forgot that wound was there." Ambigious said, trying not to be too loud.

TehLulz carefully pushed the witch off of himself, moving her a little to the right.

Ambigious started to grin.

"You know TehLulz, there are enough witches in Minecraft already, you don't have to make more." He said with a half-straight face.

TehLulz stood up and stretched, making a lot of his joints creak.

"I wasn't doing… that." He said, yawned and then added: "I think I will never get fully used to sleeping on the ground… And by the way, she saved you." He said.

He then pointed at the witch who was now lying where he had been lying a few seconds earlier, he yawned again.

Ambigious stopped grinning. "Oh… Don't tell her I said anything, okay? But how did we get here anyway?"

TehLulz told Ambigious everything from him falling asleep in the boat to the strange euphoria after leaving the boats. He stopped when he was about to mention Fire.

TehLulz asked: "You noticed Fire here, right?"

"Yeah, has he been waiting here?" Ambigious wanted to know.

"No. Look at his chest." TehLulz answered.

Ambigious turned around and in the face of Fire's gaping wound every bit of humor disappeared from his look and his face turned dead-serious.

"Holy crap! What happened to him? And how didn't I notice that?" Ambigious asked.

"I don't know either. At first we thought that he was dead but then he wasn't… entirely. It is still not certain that he will survive."

"Man, that is bad." Ambigious said. "Is there anything we can do?"

"The witch put a drop of Fire's potion into the wound, let's hope it helps." TehLulz answered, then he added: "I don't want to talk about that anymore."

Ambigious looked left and right and promptly changed topic: "This is one strange hut."

After a standing up and walking around a bit he asked: "How did she save me by the way?"

TehLulz replied: "That illness you had is called blaze fever, you seem to have caught it in the Nether. She cured it by giving you a Fire Resistance potion."

"That seemed logical." Ambigious commented.

He removed the bandage Unchosen had made him, looked at the wound and his face changed to disgust. The wound hadn't gotten any better, it was about the same with the only difference being that a hard crust had formed on the wounded flesh.

He didn't comment on the wound but instead asked: "Should we wake up the others?"

TehLulz asked: "The witch too?"

"Not yet, we need to talk about things first. By the way, do you know her name?"

"No… She didn't tell me."

"Whatever." Ambigious said and proceeded to poke freeZe in the shoulder.

"Hmmm?" freeZe muttered.

"Wake up." Ambigious said, a winning smile on his face. "By the way, I woke up before you."

freeZe pushed herself up from the ground, but after she saw Fire, she dropped to the floor again.

TehLulz demanded: "Come on, stand up."

"But Fire is dead… and Ambigious, how are you talking, you have a fever." freeZe said, still very sleepy.

"I got cured." Ambigious said.

"Fire is not dead, not entirely at least." TehLulz said and immediately regretted adding the second part.

"Not dead?" Unchosen muttered, who was woken up by freeZe's movements.

TehLulz explained: "The witch gave him a bit of his potion, the golden apple concentrate, you know."

"Witch?" freeZe asked.

"Okay, time to tell that story again. Are you really awake? I don't want to tell you twice, I'll make it short this time."

freeZe and Unchosen sat up and said: "We are awake."

TehLulz quickly explained: "Right after we saw Fire I heard the witch coming up the ladder, you two had passed out. I explained the situation and she gave Ambigious a Fire Resistance potion to cure his illness, she called it blaze fever I believe. Then she put a drop of Fire's golden apple concentrate into the wound. Remember how Fire did that to Oalrhm? Oalrhm wasn't really dead either, he was just something like a very deep sleep, let's hope that it is the same for Fire. But I still don't understand how he would be able to live with his heart lacerated like that… Also she said that she knows Fire, or at least her mother knew him."

"Hold on now." Unchosen said. "So Fire might be alive. Ambigious is cured but we still have his wound to deal with, which might be easier now that the witch is here. We might actually be in good shape... If we find a way to repair Fire's heart that is."

Ambigious asked: "So, will we wake up the witch now?"

"I think so." TehLulz answered and gave Ambigious to remind him not to say anything.

TehLulz knelt down next to the witch and tried to wake her up by poking her in the shoulder, she didn't show any reaction.

"Hey, wake up." He said.

This didn't seem to have any effect, the witch was still fast asleep. Then Ambigious pushed his friend aside and shook the witch with a bit more force, this did wake her up.

She yawned, then looked at Ambigious. She dryly said: "It seems you have recovered."

TehLulz broke the following awkward silence: "Time to properly introduce ourselves. This is Ambigious, that is freeZe, that is Unchosen, I am TehLulz." He pointed at his friends in order.

"Nice to meet you…" She said, still more asleep than awake.

freeZe asked: "What is your name?"

"My name? I am Aurone." She said.

freeZe smiled: "Nice to meet you Aurone."

Aurone demanded: "Now you need to tell me all about that journey of yours, you owe me that after breaking into my house."

They looked at each other, not sure what to do as they didn't want to mention the server or the hackers. It didn't feel right to lie to someone who saved their lives but they were not sure what the witch, an NPC, would do if they talked about the server.

"I'll start." Unchosen said, the others were visibly relieved.

"Okay, so until a few days ago we were slaves in the Rockbane Quarry in the Deepsand Desert, which is also where we met Fire."

"There is a slave mine in the Deepsand Desert?" Aurone asked, obviously surprised.

"It's fairly new, it's only been there for about a year." freeZe explained.

Unchosen continued: "We spent months in the quarry until one day Fire said that he had a friend who would bring us potions to help us break out. That friend came and we jumped into the volcano with the potions protecting us." He paused and added: "Don't be surprised by that, there are much stranger things on our journey."

Aurone asked: "Where did you live before you were made slaves?"

Unchosen didn't answer at first, Ambigious quickly made something up: "We lived in the area around the edge of the desert. Farmers and hunters, that kind of stuff."

Unchosen gave Ambigious a thankful look and continued: "At the bottom of the volcano was a Nether portal, after going through we had to walk a long distance to get to a Nether Fortress."

freeZe said: "We got attacked by a magma cube on the way, Fire saved us from it but the cube swallowed him, he survived but as you can see his scales are still deformed from the heat."

TehLulz continued. "In the Nether Fortress we met Wither cultists that were friends of Fire, they gave us food and the bow Fire has on his back right now."

Aurone said: "You didn't lie when you said that there strange things on your journey. Wither cultists that aren't out to sacrifice you, I didn't think that was even possible."

TehLulz continued: "We exited the Nether through another portal and climbed a mountain." He left out the part about them discovering that freeZe was a mage and moved on with the story. "After climbing down on the other side, we made ourselves some wooden armor in preparation for the Graveyard of the Forest."

freeZe continued explaining: "In the forest we met Oalrhm…"

"You met Oalrhm?" Aurone interrupted, she sounded excited.

"Yes… What about him?" freeZe asked.

"Every witch should visit Oalrhm at least once in her life, I have yet to go. How is he?" Aurone asked.

"I don't know. He is friendly but he clearly explained that he can and will kill if he has to. He seems to be much more powerful than you would think." freeZe said.

Aurone answered: "Oalrhm is one of the most powerful creatures of Earth in existence. But nevermind that, continue."

Unchosen started talking again: "Alright, where did we stop…? After Oalrhm opened the passage we had to fight out way through the Graveyard, that is where Fire got hit by some spell from a skeletal mage, he just disappeared, no idea how he ended up here. After that, we walked through the swamp. So, that is how we got here."

Ambigious said: "Now, we told you about us. Who are you?"


	33. Chapter 32

"I am a genius!" Jack exclaimed while he was waiting on Q to pick up his call.

"How is the situation Q?" He asked.

"The police showed up again, this time I had the entrance sealed. They talked about leaving this area alone… don't know if they meant it or if they are bluffing and want me to feel safe enough to come out, which isn't going to happen. Have you been making progress with reading the code?"

Jack grinned. "I indeed have. I have been reading through the code for some time now. Most things that we assumed are proven. The software establishes a direct connection to our brains, although I have no idea on the specifics, the exact processes seem to be in separate files in a machine-level language I have never seen before and can't make any sense of. As far as I could tell the software can read and write fairly extensively, though I only ever see it used for transferring sensory data and relaying instructions to your virtual body."

"Excellent. Anything else?" Q wanted to know.

Jack said: "Yes. I am certain now that we can't separate the code from Minecraft without the admins giving it to us. We might have to fall back to your original plan. I hoped that we could avoid that."

"That is not good. If we start killing them and the police gets us we all will be in jail for life, hell they might even make an exception and execute us. But if we stop now Fire knows where we live, especially where I live, he got to look at our data after all. We already crossed the line and now we need to keep going."

Jack sighed. "I guess you are right. I really hoped that we wouldn't have to do this. I'll tell you some more things I found in the code. Maybe that will help us find Fire."

Q answered: "Go ahead."

Jack explained: "I found a file with all kinds of objects scattered all around the map that may be able to help Fire remove us from the server. I don't know what they are, I don't know where they are and I don't even know how many there are, the file was very vague on that. They could be a key made from redstone, a gem shining in rainbow colors, anything really. There are a lot of them and only some may be relevant to Fire."

"And Fire is searching for those relevant objects." Q said.

"Exactly. Even if Fire is the only one who knows what those objects do, chances are that more people know about them. If we could extract information from somebody we could be one step ahead of Fire and prevent him from collecting those things. We even might collect them ourselves. Anything to avoid killing people."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I will inform everybody about what you found out. Bye." Q said and immediately hung up.

Jack looked at the code again. He knew what he had to look for but he didn't know where. He needed more information about those objects, it would be hard finding out where they were from the file because they were not stationary.

Jack thought to himself: "Somebody could just have picked up one of those without knowing what it actually is. If they serve any purpose besides removing us… at least one of them should be in a vault of a big town. Too bad I don't know where the big towns are."

Then he had an idea. Andreas and his brothers were on patrol duty most of the time, they knew their way around the map pretty well.

Jack opened his communication app and double clicked Andreas' name and hoped that he wasn't on the server.

He was in luck, Andreas picked up after thirty seconds.

"What's up?" He asked.

"Andy, I need your help." Jack said.

"It's about that broadcast message from Q we got a minute ago, right?"

"Yep. You need to inform me about the important locations on the server. I figured one of the objects might be there."

Andreas asked: "So, towns or general locations?"

Jack replied: "Towns."

"We've only been on the main continent but from what I have heard there isn't much along the lines of civilization overseas, mostly pirate dens or small settlements. For the main continent, first and foremost there is Rockhaven, it is something like the capital town of the server or at least a lot of the trade seems to converge there. Its walls are made from a material I have heard is called 'artificial bedrock' and it is protected by magical spells. I have only seen it from the outside but from what I have heard the king possesses an axe capable of splitting almost anything. If the name Threepeak Mountain tells you anything, that is near where it is."

"I know where that is, I ran a little search for mountains a bit ago, go on." Jack said.

Andreas continued: "Rockhaven is the only really fortified town I know of, the others are just large settlements. I'll tell you what the five biggest ones are. First there is Redwater, located by a large stream with the same name. Mostly a fishing town but I heard that they also brew potions there. Then there is Oakington. As the name suggests, it is in the middle of a forest, this town has specialized in cutting and manufacturing wood, they also tame and sell wolves."

"I will check those two out. Go on."

"Okay, next there is Drysprings, located at the edge of an unnamed mountainous desert, it is like a town from a wild west movie, complete with sheriff and saloon. They breed very fast and enduring horses there, they also produce weapons and armor from imported steel. Now, I don't know where the next town is, I have only heard stories about it. That town seems to be where most of the mined resources on the server come from, it is called Drandin."

Jack interrupted "That name is different from the others…"

"I know right, it doesn't say anything about the location of the town. Some say that it is high up in the mountains, some say it is in a hidden valley, others say that it is underground. The only other thing about that town is that not only a lot of the mined resources come from there but also a considerable part of the alcoholic beverages. They also seem to pretty much have the monopoly on diamond tools and armor. On that and on something that is called 'drandinian Heavybrew', some sort of alcohol I assume."

"I would bet that at least one of the objects Fire is after is something related to drinking or brewing…" Jack assumed and then asked: "What is the last town?"

"The last town is Treetop, it is in a jungle and consists of mostly treehouses. The people there are excellent hunters, there are also a lot of mages and enchanters there from what I have heard. I also heard that some of their constructions would be quite unsafe if it weren't for their magic."

Jack smiled and said: "Thanks for the info Andy. I can assume that your shift is over now? Just in case I need some more information."

"It is not exactly over but I can tell Jonathan to take the rest of my shift." Andreas replied.

"Thanks. I'll be looking at those towns now, one after the other. Bye and thanks."

"Actually, wait. I'll log onto the server right now and draw a map for you, just wait a few minutes and then log on, I think I'll be done drawing by then."

Jack thanked Andreas: "A map would help, see you soon on the server."

Before hanging up Andreas said: "No problem, see you."

Jack pushed his chair away from his desk and stood up. Before logging into the server again he quickly wanted to eat and drink some more, just in case. He walked into his kitchen and opened the fridge again. It was pretty empty since he never stockpiled food. There were just a few apples, some cheese, some milk and similar things. The thing he was looking for was a blue plastic bottle, which he found almost immediately. In the bottle was a mixture of different nutrients and water. He had prepared it for situations like this where he didn't have time to eat. He would be on the server for a long time.

He opened the full bottle and drank half the liquid inside, he shivered at the cold and the bad taste and put it back into the fridge and muttered: "Bah… disgusting."

Back in his computer room he logged into the server, he thought: "It is kind of creepy now that I somewhat know how it works, connecting my brain to software. Fortunately it is just Minecraft I am connecting to."

* * *

He woke up in his spawn bed, which he hadn't left since he died. He stood up and exited the room that had a good forty beds in it.

On the server Jack looked like a tall man with very short brown hair, grey eyes and pale skin. He was wearing a black business suit and a tie.

He now was in a hallway with wooden walls, he sprinted to the very end of it and opened the door to the processing building. The people there greeted him as soon as he entered.

A person sharpening an iron sword at a grindstone told him: "Andy told me to tell you that he is in Room 26."

"Thanks." Jack said and ran over to a hallway and then to said door.

On the inside he saw Andreas sitting on a wooden chair and hunched over a large piece of paper. Andreas was a short and thin man with short green hair and eyes. His skin was so pale, it was almost white. He was wearing wide red shirt and black sweatpants.

"Hey Jack!" Andreas greeted him. "The map is done."

"Thanks again for drawing it." Jack said.

Andreas answered: "No problem, take a look."

The map was very detailed, displaying the exact biome borders and important cities, everything that had a name was labeled accordingly.

"See, there is Drysprings… there is Oakington… there Rockhaven and here are Treetop and Redwater." Andreas explained and then continued: "But you with your appearance won't really have much success with asking the population, you will need to disguise."

"Disguise as what?" Jack asked, a little surprised.

Andreas replied: "Merchant, warrior, farmer, explorer, hunter… Whatever you want. We have a whole cabinet of clothes and equipment we found. Or stole for that matter."

"I didn't know that. Where?"

"Room 34. Take the map and we'll go there."

Andreas stood up from his wooden chair and went out of the door. Room 34 was in fact only a few doors further down the corridor.

Andreas opened the door and said: "You go first, the light switch is to the right."

Jack nodded and entered the room, he couldn't see much in the light that came in from the door. He turned right and flipped the light switch, he heard an electric crackle caused by the redstone in the wall, the lamps on the ceiling turned on one after another. What he saw impressed him. Dozens of mannequins wearing different clothes, ranging from solid iron plate armor over light and ragged travelers' clothes up to wide black mage robes.

"That is impressive, I never knew we were hoarding this here." Jack said in admiration

"Well, officially we aren't, it was Jonathan's idea to collect clothes, in the end it came in very handy. When you are disguised nobody knows you are one of us."

Jack smirked: "Right. Now for the difficult part. Who will I be?"


	34. Chapter 33

Aurone talked in length about her life, she spent hours explaining everything. She began with what her mother told her and ended with her finding TehLulz in her house. It turned out that she had been living in the swamp for about twenty-three years. She told them that many more witches used to live near the village before she was born, her mother didn't have a tree house back then, just in a small hut on the ground. Everything had been good until a group of artefact hunters came to the area to hunt the witches, they killed all of them and then burned their huts down. Only Aurone's mother Runa survived because she hid in a cave below the tree the hut was on now, a newborn Aurone in her arms. In the months after that Runa lived in the village and raised Aurone there, hoping the hunters wouldn't come back.

Half a year later the villagers helped Runa build the hut on the tree. Over the months a number of traders passed by, they came there to trade goods to the villagers in exchange for emeralds and mostly ignored the witch hut unless they were wounded and hoped that Runa would heal them. Aurone said that her mother told her that one day there was an unarmed tall man with scales like a lizard, a vagrant who didn't tell his name. It seemed like the villagers didn't want to trade with him because they were afraid of him. He had asked if he could stay in the hut for one night and offered a book with potion recipes as payment. Runa let him stay in the hut for the night and it soon turned out that she had been right in doing so. That night the artefact hunters returned.

Aurone recounted how their torches lit up the night and their shouts filled the air. Just when her mother thought it was over for her, the strange man suddenly rose up, jumped down to the ground and fought the hunters, one against a dozen. The hunters however quickly found out that their own viciousness was nothing against the ferocious fighting style of their opponent. Runa watched the massacre from her balcony, a crying Aurone in her arms. All hunters were killed except one that the man left alive to tell the tale. After that, he climbed up into the house again and laid down as if nothing had happened.

The next morning he had thanked Runa for the stay, introduced himself as Fire and left. Runa would have thought the events of the night were a dream if there wouldn't have been corpses lying all around the hut. That and the book about potions he had left as a thanks for letting him stay. Aurone's life after the attack went on without any bigger events besides her and her mother healing the wounds of travelers passing by and curing diseases in the village.

Aurone explained how she learned how to brew potions and survive in the swamp and also went into detail about the different potions, which only really interested Unchosen, he asked one question after the other, much to the annoyance of the others. She told them about various poisons and their effects, often going into more detail about the effects than would have been needed.

Aurone stopped when she was about to tell what happened when she was fifteen years old and then sighed. She told them that one day she woke up and her mother was just gone. Aurone said that she never found out what happened to her but she knew from the start that she wasn't going to return. After that she continued living in the hut for eight more years up until the day she found the group in her hut.

It was already afternoon when Aurone finished telling her story.

Promptly leaving topic Ambigious said: "Do you have anything to eat here, I am hungry."

freeZe was about to say something but was cut off by Aurone: "Of course. If you like herbs that is."

"I am not picky when I am hungry, just give me something. Don't worry, I have been living in a slave mine for the last few months after all, I am used to eating just about anything as long as it has calories." Ambigious answered and gestured towards his mouth with his healthy arm.

freeZe slowly agreed: "Yes, I would like something to eat too… I think all of us do. Let's find out what the usual diet of someone living in a swamp is."

Aurone stood up and started walking towards the door, she said: "We will have to collect some food, I never store much."

The others stood up and followed the witch through the door and down the ladder. Getting Ambigious down to the ground was a bit troublesome as he could only use one arm but with the help of TehLulz he finally reached the ground.

"What do the plants look like that we are searching for?" Unchosen wanted to know.

Aurone replied: "They grow on the ground and are about half as tall as you, they have four leaves and a round, green blossom on top." She looked around for a bit and then pointed towards a willow tree nearby. "There are some over there."

Aurone went first, then Unchosen and then the others. freeZe noticed how Aurone was barely visible with her grass clothes, Unchosen was similarly hard to see, the leaves all over his body had almost the same color as the grass which made it hard to spot him from a distance. freeZe looked down to her feet and smiled, she herself was very visible in comparison, a pitch black silhouette with green eyes standing in the middle of the grass.

Aurone reached the plant and cut the stem with the knife she had shown TehLulz the day before.

"I am leaving the roots in the ground so it can grow back." She explained and handed a leaf to each of the others.

The leaves tasted very sour and a little bitter but it was far better than the flavorless salad leaves they had been eating in the quarry.

Unchosen asked: "How many do you need to eat every day?"

"They are quite nutritious, it's about twenty for me, for you three I would say thirty and for… what was your name again?" She looked at Ambigious questioningly.

"Ambigious." He answered.

"Ah, right Ambigious. For you I would say thirty-five, you seem quite strong." She said and then added: "You can go around collecting those on your own now but don't eat the blossom, it contains a weak paralysis poison, just give them to me, I might use them for some potions."

"Alright then." freeZe said.

She started looking for more of the plants, there were none in her vicinity but she could see a big patch of them a short distance away.

She pointed in the direction and told her friends: "Look, over there. There are some."

freeZe, TehLulz, Ambigious and Unchosen walked towards the patch while the witch wandered off in a different direction, probably looking for different herbs. Ambigious took the lead and then took his stone sword out of his inventory and slashed at the tall grass in front of them, clearing a path. Even though he was using his left hand it didn't seem like he had trouble using the sword.

When they arrived at the patch they carefully started plucking the herbs. TehLulz immediately ate one of the leaves and then shivered, he wasn't used to the strong sour taste but immediately ate another leaf, he was hungry.

"I could get used to this." Unchosen stated as he removed the blossom from an herb and put it into his inventory.

Ambigious agreed: "Much better than the crap we got in the quarry, was probably spawned in, everything tasted exactly the same."

They didn't talk much after that, they were too busy plucking and eating the leaves. About ten minutes later they had eaten a good part of the patch and started walking towards the hut again on the path Ambigious had cut through the swamp.

Unchosen looked at how much of the patch they had eaten and assumed: "I don't think that the swamp can sustain five people with food for a long time, one maybe but not the five of us."

"You're probably right." Ambigious said.

They were almost at the witch hut as they saw Aurone waiting on the lower end of the ladder, a worried look on her face.

"What is it?" freeZe asked.

"I think there is someone or something in the hut, I heard heavy steps a minute ago."

"Interesting… let's check it out then." TehLulz said and proceeded walking towards the ladder.

He was already halfway up the ladder when freeZe said: "Be careful, you don't know it is."

TehLulz reached the platform and took a deep breath. He pressed his ear against the wooden door, at first he didn't hear anything but as he listened more carefully he heard a slow rattling breath and the sound of a chest being opened.

Unchosen asked: "What is it?"

TehLulz replied quietly: "I don't know but it seems to be searching for something in your chest Aurone."

As he didn't get an answer TehLulz slowly opened the door and peeked through the small opening. He could barely see anything, the only thing he could see was a tall figure bowing over the chest next to the furnace. Suddenly he realized something. The figure must be Fire who woke up. It was still a mystery to him how he could live without a working heart, maybe the potion temporarily replaced the need for one? He opened the door completely, which flooded the room with light and surprised the figure, which stopped searching the chest and now faced the door. TehLulz looked at the now illuminated figure and was relieved to see that it was indeed Fire. However when his gaze went lower he saw the wound in Fire's chest. The wound looked bigger than before since Fire was now standing and not leaning against the wall. In front of the shredded heart TehLulz could see a piece of Fire's lungs, which were now operational. It gave the wound an even more gruesome look as it moved, every movement seemed to cause him pain.

"Fire? Are you okay?" TehLulz stuttered.

Fire recognized his friend's voice and faced the chest to continue his search with a rattling sigh, then he raised one finger to a gesture that meant "later", he seemed to be unable to speak.

TehLulz turned around and told the others: "It is Fire, he doesn't seem to be in very good condition though."

"Let me up there!" Aurone yelled and pushed Unchosen aside and then climbed the ladder.

As she saw Fire rummaging in her chest she walked up to him and asked: "What are you looking for?"

Fire once again made a gesture, this time he drew a crescent shape into the air with his fingers, then tapped a yellow stain on his coat. Aurone seemed to understand what he meant and pointed at a satchel.

"There." She said.

Fire nodded and opened the satchel, inside were melon slices, only that they were golden, glistening melons. Fire also had found some bottles and filled them with water, then put them into the brewing stand. He searched the satchel again and fished out a nether wart, which he cut in three parts with his claws and put them into the bottles brewing stand and stuffed the melon slices in afterwards. Then Fire waited, pressing his left hand against the wound, it seemed like the wound started to hurt even more now.

TehLulz just stood there and observed what Fire was doing, unable to do anything himself. Judging by the ingredients he used he was making healing potions. Fire's rattling breath sped up as the pain in his chest increased, TehLulz assumed that Fire had just woken up and his potion was wearing off.

Twenty long seconds later the water changed its color from transparent to a bright red. Fire didn't even wait for the potion to cool down, his shivering hands took a bottle from the stand and emptied it into his mouth. Fire's half-closed eyes suddenly were wide open and his hands dropped the bottle, making it shatter on the wooden floor. Fire followed the bottle and dropped down to the ground where he was lying with his eyes wide open and his limbs in a stretched out position. At first nothing seemed to happen, then suddenly black bones started growing from the sides of his wound, closing up his ribcage again. Muscles grew over the bones at a rapid speed, followed by black skin and scales. At the same time the scales that had been deformed by the magma cube fell off and were immediately replaced with pristine ones. A few seconds later a twitch went through Fire's body, his eyes closed and his body relaxed, he was just lying there peacefully like before, just without the wound.


	35. Chapter 34

Fire's body shot up, his claws were extended and ready to fight off the skeletal mage he had been fighting a few moments ago, everything around him was slowed to a standstill.

Suddenly Fire noticed that there was no skeletal mage, he wasn't in the dark Graveyard of the Forest. He noticed that he also wasn't standing anymore, he was sitting on a wooden floor, in front of him was a familiar face, distorted in fear. Fire realized that he wasn't in danger and retracted his claws, then he took a few moments to examine his environment. He was in a wooden hut, judging by the smell located in a swamp. There were two people standing in the room, first TehLulz, whose face looked normal again now that Fire had retracted his claws. The second one was unknown to Fire, it was a woman with long black hair clothed in what seemed to be grass. Fire's sense for energy kicked in, he felt fairly large amounts of magic flowing in the area, this seemed to be a witch hut.

"Are you okay Fire?" TehLulz asked and made Fire snap out of his observation.

Fire replied: "Yes… but where is this?"

Fire just now noticed that his coat was completely torn and a numb throbbing filled his chest.

He asked: "What happened?"

"I hoped you could explain that to us." TehLulz said and added: "To sum it up, you got hit by some magic missile in the valley and disappeared, freeZe pulverized the skeleton with lightning, Ambigious took an arrow in the arm and later got blaze fever, we found you here in this hut with a huge hole in your chest, Aurone helped us and just a few minutes ago you woke up and made health potions and drank one."

"I don't remember that… just give me a bit to get my thoughts in order." Fire muttered.

TehLulz turned around and called the others, who came up the ladder one by one, Ambigious with the help of TehLulz. The look on their faces was a mix of disbelief and joy.

"I thought it was over." freeZe said.

For the next few minutes they just stood there, thinking about what happened.

Fire broke the silence: "You said Aurone earlier, right? I know this place… wait. I remember now, I was here twenty something years ago." Fire looked at Aurone. "So you are Runa's daughter?"

Aurone replied: "Yes… that's me."

"I think I have some things to explain to you all, this may take some time." Fire said and took a deep breath. "I have the ability to teleport but doing so is very risky since I can't control the destination and even a short-distance teleport drains most of my energy, which explains my lack of memories. I must have managed to teleport just as the spell hit me, which probably interfered with the teleport and resulted in that wound you mentioned. The reason I ended up here is because this place is a magical energy source, unguided teleportation is generally drawn to such places."

"Seems very handy to have such an emergency teleport." Unchosen commented, then he added: "That doesn't really explain how you were able to live with your heart gone."

Fire explained: "I am sure you noticed that I am quite different from normal human physiology. I have three hearts, which is necessary, my body has a high demand for oxygen when I use my muscles at full capacity."

Ambigious said: "I know I said that before but… man Fire, the admins really did give you a lot of advantages."

Fire simply replied: "They had their reasons, it was mostly an experiment." Then he changed topic by asking: "On a side note, what moon phase do we have?"

Aurone answered: "Full moon."

"That is less than ideal." Fire said. "Now we have to deal with slimes as well."

freeZe said: "Slimes? We haven't seen any on our way here."

"That means that they have piled up in some part of the swamp and are hunting for meat. It wouldn't surprise me if we ran into them."

"What makes you so sure of that?" Unchosen wondered.

Fire wanted to say something but Ambigious answered instead: "Remember what happened in the Nether? The only things that could be seriously dangerous to us were magma cubes. And what happened? Magma cubes! And in the Graveyard of the Forest? Skeletal mage! Here in the swamp? Probably a pile of slimes wanting to eat us alive!" Ambigious sighed and then said: "Also… Aurone, mind handing me one of those instant healing potions? My arm could really use one of those."

Aurone took one potion from the brewing stand, Ambigious took it and carefully took a sip as the potion was still hot.

"Doesn't even taste that good." he remarked and slowly drank the rest.

His arm started tingling and new muscles and skin grew over his wound.

Unchosen asked: "Those potions seem to be very useful, why don't we take some of them with us?"

Aurone gave him an answer: "They spoil within a few hours after being made, they lose their effect and just become mediocrely tasting pink juice. Regeneration potions don't perish that quickly but they are not practical for dealing with wounds… say in the middle of a battle because they make you tired. With rarer ingredients it is of course possible to make health potions that don't perish. However the frequent use of health potions weakens the user and can drain their life force…"

Ambigious interrupted: "Sorry Aurone but I'm going to have to stop you there, no need for another potion monologue."

She stopped when she noticed what she was doing: "Oh… I apologize, I always get so carried away when talking about potions, I know the recipe book Fire left us here by heart."

"You still have it?" Fire wanted to know.

Aurone answered: "Yes, hold on…" She walked over to her chest and started searching it for the book, a few seconds later she found it. "Here it is."

The book was bound in thick, blood red leather and had a stylized image of a bubbling potion on the cover. The title read "Fire's Potion Journal Third Edition". Fire was impressed by how good the book looked, even after all of those years in the humid swamp. Aurone clearly had taken good care of it. He let his fingers slide across the cover and started turning the pages, the others could see illustrations of herbs and other ingredients but also gruesomely detailed drawings of the effects of poisons.

Fire gave the book back to Aurone and said: "When we arrive at my base I'll make sure that my sister sends one of her demons to your hut with the newest edition."

"Your sister has demons? Tell me more." Aurone said with a light in her eyes.

Ambigious made a head gesture towards freeZe, grinned and whispered: "Let's leave those two to their magic-alchemy-stuff talks, it is almost sunset again, we should go to sleep."

The next morning, just after sunrise, Fire woke up the others. After Ambigious was finally able to move, they had breakfast with Aurone that consisted of some of the steak Fire still had with him, Aurone also gave them some leaves like those they had eaten the day before. Before leaving, they made sure that they had enough water, food and other supplies in their inventories. Aurone wished them good luck as they walked away from her hut.

They had fewer problems than before, they were on a larger landmass now so they didn't have to jump over little streams all the time. Fire told them that if they marched during the day they would be able to reach his base within a few days. This motivated the group further, partially because Fire's base was the first big goal on their journey but also because they really wanted to eat a real meal and sleep in a real bed.

After a few hours of walking, the sun was high up in the sky, the temperature was fairly high and they needed to rest every once in a while. The grass below their feet was lush and dark green despite the scorching sun. They decided to take a break under a large willow tree and wait until the sun would sink deeper in the sky so they could continue walking until sunset.

Fire pointed in the distance and asked: "Do you see that? If you look closely, you can see the crowns of the trees of the jungle. You do know what that means, right? It means that we'll leave this swamp tomorrow."

"About time." Ambigious said and leaned against the trunk of the willow tree.

About one hour later they were ready to depart again, they drank some water and ate some of Aurone's leaves and started walking towards where they could see the tall jungle trees. They made a lot of progress towards the jungle in what was left of the otherwise eventless day, they were all glad that they could just walk without something trying to kill them at every corner.

When the sun once again turned the clouds blood red, they were tired from the walk and just wanted to sleep.

"I don't want to push our luck with the slimes, if we keep walking in the darkness we risk being ambushed by them. We should set up camp right here." Fire suggested and looked around.

freeZe had an idea: "How about we build a pillar and a platform where we can sleep on, I don't think they can reach us up there. Ambigious, don't you still have a whole lot of sandbasalt with you?"

"That I do." Ambigious replied and tossed everybody a stack of the black and yellow rock.

Everyone stacked up a pillar with a height of sixteen blocks, then they started building a big platform where they could sleep. When the platform was done, Unchosen added a rim to it.

He just said: "Safety rail."

When he was done he laid down next to the others, soon they were all sleeping. Only Fire was standing guard with his ghast bone bow in hand, hoping that nothing would attack them.


	36. Chapter 35

Fire let his gaze sweep over the swampland, trying to spot potential danger. Fire's friends were sleeping, using their nether wool winter clothes as makeshift cushions. Fire knew all too well what the server had in store for them and he hoped that they would encounter nothing of it this night. Occasionally a zombie or a skeleton showed up in the tall grass but they didn't pose a threat.

After a couple of hours Fire sat down on the rim Unchosen had built, he knew that he shouldn't let his guard down but the night had not been eventful until now and he hoped that it would stay that way. Fire opened his inventory and brought out the enchanted iron sword he took from the armored zombie in the graveyard and inspected it more closely. It was definitely the product of a smithy and not of a crafting table, it was quite long but for Fire's size it was a short sword with a tiny handle. At the first look it seemed to be quite dull but on inspecting it more closely you could see a purple sheen along the edges of the blade, the Sharpness enchantment. Fire could also feel small amounts of Fire energy leaking from the blade, indicating an imperfect Fire Aspect enchantment.

Fire tried swinging the blade a few times and was satisfied with how well the blade was balanced, at least the blacksmith had done better work than the enchanter.

Fire stood up and put the sword back into his inventory, then he took another look around the area. Again, he found nothing of significance.

A bit later Fire spotted a blue light a fair distance away, the source of the light was what seemed to be a translucent blue floating dress. Fire recognized it as a ghost light, a creature of Air. Although it was sentient, it was not intelligent enough to lure somebody into drowning, at least not on purpose, it was practically harmless. Fire relaxed since no real danger was present.

The ghost light remained the most exciting thing Fire saw that night.

The next morning Fire woke up his friends after sunrise and they took down the platform again. Everybody was refreshed by the sleep, only Ambigious started out a bit groggy. Even though Fire had been up the entire night he didn't feel tired.

They started marching in the direction of the jungle again, which now was a whole lot closer. Fire could already see individual vines and leaves while the others just saw a mass of green and a bit of brown.

Unchosen asked: "So, Fire. How big is your base?"

Fire replied: "It depends on how you see it. For normal Minecraft standards it is giant. It is all underground so it is hard to estimate its size but I would say that it is still fairly big, even for the server's standards."

"Underground, hmm?" Ambigious said, then added: "Makes sense, you want to hide it from unwanted looks after all."

Fire laughed and replied: "No, a simple projection or a not so simple ender field warp could hide an above ground base just as easily. You don't need elaborate hideouts when you have magic. I have both of those spells active on my base but it being underground is just another layer of security."

"You and your magic." Ambigious said and shook his head.

After walking for about three hours they sat down under a willow tree once again to eat some food and drink some water. While they had enough water, they were almost out of steak and only about half of the leaves were left. Fire assured the others that the food would last them until they were in the jungle where they could eat some of the fruits and berries that grew there.

They started walking again at noon. It wasn't nearly as hot as the day before, the sky had been covered by a thin layer of clouds that scattered the sunlight. This unusual lighting gave the swamp a whole new atmosphere, it seemed like an unreal landscape where nothing would cast shadows. They didn't mind the change and continued walking, glad that the sun wasn't burning down on them.

They were drawing near the edge of the swamp, which was easy to notice since they weren't on the big central landmass anymore. Their path was interrupted by small black streams again, they had to maneuver their way around them or jump over, which was easier now than when they were worn out from battle.

While they were walking on a bigger stretch of land freeZe asked Fire something, she sounded uneasy as she spoke: "There is something I want to know. Back in the graveyard after the skeleton hit you with that spell. Something happened to me, it was a feeling that was slowly growing and in the end I don't think that I was really in control anymore. The more I lost control the stronger the lightning in my hands would become and when it took over I just zapped the skeleton like it was no big deal. Do you have an explanation for that?"

After avoiding a root Fire answered: "You know how I told you about magic back in the cave? Magic has of a mind of its own if there is enough of it. So if you pile enough magical energy into something it will become sentient. This is the whole reason why magical creatures exist and also the reason why the less powerful creatures aren't very smart. After you activated the blaze core, you also activated your life force reserve for the first time. I don't have all the details in my head but this triggers some kind of reaction, your life force gets a mind of its own."

TehLulz asked: "Kind of like a second personality?"

Fire replied: "That describes it quite well. The mind and the life force share the same body but only one of them can be in control. This is usually the mind of the mage. When the mind is affected by strong emotions it loses control. In freeZe's case that emotion was anger. When this happens the life force can take over the body temporarily. Mind and life force are still emotionally connected though, which is why your life force avenged me for you. When someone first discovers their magical potential and doesn't train it, they will stay extremely unstable because their life force will always try to use its power when gains control. Becoming a mage involves a lot of strengthening the connection between mind and life force so that they eventually become one and the same."

"Good thing I am getting training from your sister then." freeZe said and smiled.

Ambigious said: "Careful, water right up ahead."

* * *

In the afternoon the edge of the swamp was very close but still a few kilometers separated them from it and that distance consisted mostly of a large lake.

They decided to build some boats again as the water was largely deep enough to use boats. Fire was impressed by Unchosen's idea of using wooden shovels as paddles, claiming he would have never come up with that. Unchosen was sure to have heard a little joking undertone in the way Fire said it but he knew that the compliment was genuine.

They paddled away silently, pushing aside lily pads that were in their path. The water in the middle of the lake was fairly deep, Fire estimated it to be at least fifty meters with another ten meters of sludge below. When they arrived at the other end of the lake the jungle was just a few hundred meters away from them. After exiting the boats they started walking towards the giant jungle trees.

Fire stopped the group shortly before the biome transition: "I think we should camp outside the jungle on a platform again. Camping inside the jungle can be dangerous as there are things like snakes that drop onto sleeping travelers. Ideally we won't have to camp again after this night, no promises though."

"Seems like a good idea to me." TehLulz agreed and already started stacking up with sandbasalt.

Once the platform was built they gathered in the middle as Fire wanted to say something.

He explained: "I can stay up another night to guard but that won't be ideal because even though I don't need much sleep, two nights without it is when I start getting tired. So it would be good if you could guard through the night in shifts. You can discuss the order yourself."

"Totally understandable." Ambigious said and then added: "I'll take the first shift if you don't mind. Because if you wake me up in the middle of the night I am about as useful as no guard at all."

freeZe said: "I'll go second then. Everybody okay with that?"

Unchosen asked TehLulz: "Should I go third or do you want to?"

TehLulz replied: "I'll go last."

Fire was pleased with how quickly they had resolved the order, he said: "The sun is setting, I'll go to sleep then."

Before laying down he gave Ambigious his bow and arrows, the he said: "Even if you don't have any experience with the bow it is still better than nothing."

Ambigious replied: "I got this, don't worry. Now go to sleep everybody, we need to be fit for tomorrow."

Ambigious started patrolling the edge of the platform with the ghast bone bow in hand. Everybody else fell asleep with Fire being the last one. Fire's sleep was deep and dreamless so when he was woken up by TehLulz it only seemed like a few seconds had passed. The sun was just creeping up above the horizon, dying the whole swamp in a reddish color.


	37. Chapter 36

"Fire, we may have a problem here." TehLulz said.

Fire stretched his arms and replied: "Which is?"

TehLulz just said: "Look over the edge."

Fire walked up to the rim around the platform and looked over. But instead of green grass he saw something else green below them, it was a slime. This was no regular slime, it was a slime of enormous proportions. It was a huge flat blob of green material that had a diameter of at least fifteen meters. It had positioned itself directly below their platform, cutting off all possible escape paths.

Fire said dryly: "That is a problem."

TehLulz asked: "What will we do now? I assume that normal weapons aren't going to do damage."

"Nope, they won't. There is practically nothing that can harm a slime apart from extreme heat or anything else that makes it dry up."

TehLulz chuckled: "I don't suppose you have a few tons of salt in your inventory for an occasion like this."

"I am always prepared but not that prepared." Fire answered.

TehLulz said: "I guess I'll just wake up the others and maybe we'll be able to come up with a plan together."

It took a few minutes for everyone to wake up and a few more for Ambigious to be able to form a full sentence outside the topic of being tired. After seeing the slime they got together in the middle of the platform to discuss what they would do.

freeZe asked: "We are not in danger up here, right?"

Fire explained: "This slime doesn't have enough surface tension to form appendages that could reach up here, it absorbed too much water to be able to do that."

Ambigious said: "I assume that if we try to build a bridge outwards it would just follow us. So we need to kill it. Damn it!"

Unchosen asked: "Fire, don't you still have that bottled fireball that you caught in the Nether?"

"Yes but that is by far not enough to evaporate the water in the slime. The only other thing that we have that could do such a thing is the blaze core and that's sealed right now. The explosion from unlocking it would be too strong for us to use."

freeZe flinched at the mention of the blaze core, probably not wanting to repeat her experience with it.

TehLulz asked: "Can we outrun it?"

"That would make as much sense as trying to outrun a storm tide. The bigger a slime is the more quickly it can move." Fire replied.

They were out of ideas. There was nothing they could do except sit there and try to think of ways to kill or avoid the slime. The sun had proceeded to rise and now was already a good bit higher up in the sky. freeZe was constantly walking around on the platform and in general seemed nervous.

"Are you alright freeZe? Is there something you want to say?" Fire asked.

She replied: "I have an idea how we could get out of this but it is risky and I am not sure if I want to try it."

Fire turned to her and said: "Let's hear it."

freeZe took a deep breath and said: "Yesterday you talked about this whole thing with my life force being able to take control over my body. What if I could willingly give it control so that it can exert its power? It should attack the slime, right? Seeing that it is in a similar mind as me."

Fire answered: "Giving it control you say. Yes that is possible. But as you said it is also risky. We don't know what 'you' would do."

Ambigious threw in: "If we have no other way we might as well try it."

Fire scratched his chin and said: "That is very true." He turned to freeZe again and said: "I'll teach you how to give it control. To do this you need to be perfectly calm. First you must lay down on the ground."

freeZe did as Fire said but then asked: "I thought you were no magic user, how do you know how to do this?"

Fire replied: "I did study a fair bit of magic theory."

"Alright." freeZe said.

Fire explained: "Okay, listen. Close your eyes. You need to relax your entire body, try not to use any of your muscles at all. Good… Now do the same with your thoughts, just let them be. You may be familiar with this if you have ever done any meditation."

At first nothing happened but then freeZe's eyes opened and just like in the Graveyard of the Forest her entirely green eyes had started glowing. It wasn't quite as noticeable since the sun was shining but the light was still clearly visible against her pitch black skin.

freeZe, rather her body now under the command of her life force, rose up and looked around, then went over to the edge. Upon spotting the slime she made a gesture with her hand but nothing happened. She tried it again with the same result.

She slowly turned her head towards Fire and said a single word. The voice he heard was nothing like her normal voice, it was distorted and multilayered, similar to that of the Wither cultists.

"Flames." She said.

Fire gave her a questioning look.

She said again: "Need flames."

Fire now understood what she demanded, he closed his eyes and opened his inventory. He dragged a bottle of fire to his hotbar and as he opened his eyes again the bottle was in his right hand.

"Yes." freeZe said.

Fire walked over to her and uncorked the bottle and handed it to her. She took it in her left hand and held her right hand like a bowl. She then proceeded to pour the liquid flames over her right hand. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air but freeZe didn't even flinch. The flames had now gathered into a ball that was floating above her open hand. She just dropped the bottle, making Fire dive for it so it wouldn't shatter.

Going back to the edge again freeZe held the flame up above her, the ball of fire seemed to have gotten bigger. She leaned over the railing and pointed her hand downwards. Fire could feel how large amounts of energy were being focused into the flame in freeZe's hand.

"Down!" He shouted and threw himself to the ground.

The others were a bit confused but immediately did the same as the air around them started heating up.

Suddenly there was a bright flash and a heat wave washed over them. They could hear sizzling and smelled burnt plants along with another strange smell, which they assumed was the slime.

Moments later the heat was gone and was replaced by silence. The silence got interrupted a few more moments later by freeZe screaming in pain. Fire stood up and rushed over to his friend. A good portion of her skin was scorched, so were her clothes. Her already black hair seemed to have gotten even blacker and her skin was riddled with blisters. Tears of pain were streaming down her face.

Ambigious was the next one to arrive, he asked: "Damn, that looks nasty. Are you alright?"

freeZe forced a smile and said: "It's pretty bad but you should see the other guy."

Unchosen looked over the railing and discovered that freeZe's spell had burnt all plants in the immediate area, only leaving scorched earth. The slime had been reduced to a layer of semitransparent goo, it wasn't moving anymore.

Unchosen announced: "The slime should be dead."

Fire also took a look and said: "It is most definitely dead. This will also give us a safe landing if we jump down. In fact I will go down there right now and collect some of the slime, it's pretty valuable." After a small pause he added: "freeZe, you'll get healed when we are at my base."

"I don't think I can walk." freeZe said weakly.

"I'll have to carry you then."

After those words he jumped down. His impact was cushioned by the now almost solid slime. He started mining the layer of slime with his pickaxe, leaving a landing zone for the others.

About half an hour later the group was standing on the scorched ground, Fire had mined all the remaining slime and was now carrying freeZe in his arms, she was still plagued by the pain from her burns. Fire asked Ambigious and TehLulz to go in front to clear away the plants in their path, Unchosen formed the one-man rear guard with Fire's bow in hand.

"We'll be at my base in just a few hours. Just try to keep yourself together freeZe, you'll get all the rest you want." Fire reassured her.


	38. Chapter 37

Ambigious' stone sword cut through the vines and fern in front of him with powerful swings, clearing a narrow path. TehLulz, who was walking to his right slightly behind him, widened this path with similarly powerful movements.

Ambigious thought about the situation they were in and came to the conclusion that it was not too bad and it was clearly not the worst thing that could have happened. Of course he was worried about his sister but from his own experience he knew that the kind of burns she had wouldn't do more than hurt like hell and leave some scars.

He chuckled to himself while he thought about if the magic on the server could also remove scars, probably yes. If magic could hide things in plain sight or teleport people, removing scars seemed trivial. But you never knew.

FreeZe herself had fallen asleep in Fire's arms while they were walking. Ambigious couldn't help but grin at the fact.

He thought about what he would do in Fire's base. The whole magic thing didn't interest him very much and brewing just seemed like a very dry subject to him, he wanted to know about fighting with swords or axes, up close and personal. He had tried to fire a few arrows with Fire's bow when it was his shift and came to the conclusion that archery wasn't his thing either.

TehLulz asked Fire: "Are we still on the right path?"

Fire replied: "Yes. There shouldn't be any major obstacles in our way aside from maybe large rocks or fallen trees. From here it's basically a straight path to my base."

"Good to hear that." TehLulz said.

Ambigious remarked: "Good, crossing another river is the last thing I want to do right now. Especially with all the leeches and other jungle things…"

Fire said: "Talking about that, carnivorous plant dead ahead."

He pointed at an inconspicuous looking formation of fern.

He explained: "Don't touch that. The fern is very sticky and hidden in the middle is a funnel leading to the main part of the plant, which is underground. If something organic touches the fern it is pulled in and digested. You can distinguish it from regular fern by the shape of the leaves."

TehLulz shivered and said: "Nasty."

They kept their distance from the plant and continued walking in the same direction as before.

Nothing remarkable happened in the next part of their trek, in the late afternoon they decided to take a break in a small clearing. They sat down on the soft long grass.

Ambigious asked: "Are you sure there aren't any ants around here? I hate ants…"

Fire laughed and replied: "I can't guarantee anything but I don't see any."

Ambigious was satisfied with that answer and said: "You are the one with the eagle eyes around here."

Unchosen asked: "How long will it take until we reach your base, Fire?"

Fire answered: "I wanted to bring that up actually. I don't think we can reach it by sunset and as I said, being in the jungle at night is dangerous. This clearing is fairly safe, there are no trees for snakes to drop on top of us from. I will also be standing guard this night again."

"Alright." Unchosen said.

Fire continued: "Another thing. Now that we have time I might as well talk about what you will be doing in my base. You all will learn some things that will be useful when we go on the hunt for the other artefacts. Every one of you will be trained in combat and in a craftsmanship discipline. At first all of you will of course get training in how to use the most common weapons, in case we don't have our own at any point for some reason."

Fire paused and then carried on: "I assume that Unchosen will choose brewing for the other skill, is that right Unchosen?"

Unchosen nodded.

Fire turned to Ambigious: "How does smithing sound to you?"

Ambigious replied: "Smithing? Hell yeah! I've always wanted to do that."

"Good." Fire said and asked TehLulz: "I am fairly certain that you'll want to do enchanting, right?"

TehLulz said: "Right."

"We'll get to the details when we are at my base, no need to hurry." Fire said.

Unchosen shifted around on the grass to get into a more comfortable position and said: "I guess freeZe will do magic. From all that you have told us, magic is very versatile, so that counts for more than one discipline?"

Fire replied: "Yes, not only versatile but also very time consuming to learn, she wouldn't be able to do a second thing on the side."

Ambigious chuckled to himself and said: "I'll have to enjoy the time I still have before she can zap me at will when I say something that she doesn't like."

Fire suddenly turned his head towards a bush on the edge of the clearing.

He whispered: "There is something in that bush… doesn't seem to be very big."

A few seconds later an ocelot burst out of the bush, Fire's tension was immediately blown away.

"Oh, it's you." He said.

The ocelot stopped and then slowly walked towards Fire, he reached out with his hand and proceeded to pet the jungle cat. The ocelot started purring and pressed itself against Fire's hand.

"Awww." TehLulz said.

Fire explained: "I've known him since he was little, me and my sister take care of the animals around the base as best as we can."

Unchosen had joined Fire in petting the ocelot, he asked: "Are you here alone, little guy?"

Surprisingly, the ocelot looked at Unchosen and made a sound that sounded like something between a meow and a soft grunt, then it disappeared into the bushes but only to return with several more ocelots, one adult one and three smaller ones.

"Well, that is new." Fire remarked.

The other ocelots were equally fine with petting, which was unusual for wild animals. Even freeZe had gathered enough strength to sit up and talk a bit with the others, she was still weak and her burns still hurt but she claimed that it was getting better.

As they sat there with the ocelots and talked it quickly became night, darkness enveloped them until Fire used his flint and steel to ignite a small campfire, contained by rocks he had picked up.

Fire then proceeded to stand guard while the others slowly fell asleep, leaving him only with the ocelots. Around midnight the ocelots ran off too, Fire assumed that they were going off to hunt.

Everything was quiet until in the very early morning Fire heard something in the bushes again, it seemed to be bigger this time. He was sure that it wasn't the ocelot family returning. Fire was instantly alert and ready to fight off whatever was trying to attack them, an arrow already on the string of his bow.

Out of the bush leaped a spider which was very well adapted to the jungle. It was smaller than regular Minecraft spiders and its chitin shell had a greenish tone, making it harder to spot in the leaves. This type of spider lacked raw attack power but made it up by being substantially faster and more venomous than normal spiders.

Fire's perception slowed down but he still only barely had time to aim his bow at the eight-legged creature's head and release the arrow. The arrow left the bow and only after a few centimeters of flight it hit the spider dead on, it pierced the arachnid's shell with a crack, killing it instantly. The spider's dead body hit Fire's chest and still had enough momentum to throw Fire onto his back.

Fire pushed the spider off his chest, stood back up and put down his bow. He sat down next to the spider and used his claws to cut open its head to remove its poison glands.

"I'll use those for brewing." He said to himself, after throwing the dead spider into the bushes he added: "No reason to tell the others about this, they are stressed enough."

Fire then went back to his guard position with his bow in hand, ready to fend off any more creatures that the jungle would throw at him.

While guarding he thought about his plans for what he would need to do to prepare his friends for the long and hard journey ahead. Make some weapons and armor for them, brew some potions… then he decided that he would have more than enough time to think about those things when they were safely in the base. The one thing Fire really did look forward to was meeting his sister after one long year of slavery.

The rest of the night was unusually quiet, Fire didn't mind.


	39. Chapter 38

Fire could see the first sun rays shimmering through the leaves of the jungle trees. Normally he would wake up his friends now but Fire decided to let the others sleep a little longer this day, his base was only a few hours of walking away so they would arrive there a little bit after noon.

Because the night was over Fire decided to take a quick look through his inventory again, seeing that there was not much danger during the day. Fire was satisfied with the things he had collected while they were travelling, the blaze core and the liquid flames would surely come in handy and so would the steelwood and the dried slime.

While there were already a lot of weapons and armor in Fire's armory, he would still have to make gear for his friends, good armor and weapons needed to be custom fit to their owner. He would have to reignite his forge so that he could make the gear for the others, the forge was sure to have cooled down over the year Fire had been away.

Fire woke up his friends when the sun was a good bit above the horizon already, he woke up Ambigious first and ten minutes later the others so that they would be fully awake at about the same time.

Their breakfast consisted of the rest of the leaves Aurone had given them and some water, then they were ready to go. freeZe still didn't feel good enough to walk on her own so Fire had to carry her again.

TehLulz asked: "Did anything notable happen in the night?"

Fire had already decided not to tell his friends about the spider attack and answered: "Everything was quiet."

"Good to hear." TehLulz said.

After leaving the clearing Ambigious and TehLulz took the lead again and cleared a path, the work didn't seem exhausting to them at all, which was no wonder seeing that they had been working in a slave mine for the last few months. Unchosen had assumed the role of the rear guard again.

The path they were taking was almost completely free of danger, they had to avoid another carnivorous plant but that was the only thing. The closer they came to Fire's base the more lighthearted they became, they all were happy that the first part of their journey was over soon.

Fire told them: "Travelling will be much easier when we depart to get the first artefact, we won't have to use wooden shovels as paddles anymore for one thing. But I can't guarantee that getting the artefact itself will be such a cakewalk."

Unchosen said: "That is for certain. Getting them won't be easy."

Ambigious asked: "Remind me again which ones we know of. There is a potion in your base, then there is some axe… and something"

Fire replied: "The ones I know of are the Ultimate Base Potion, the Dragon Egg and the Axe of Eric the Viking. The potion is in my base, the egg is in the End, obviously, and the Axe is in Rockhaven."

freeZe asked: "So we are going to Rockhaven? From all I have heard it's going to be hard to get in there."

Fire laughed and replied: "Not if you have connections in there."

freeZe said: "You said that you had to sneak in there when you stole the books."

"That was when Rockhaven was still a relatively young city and I didn't have said connections. That was a couple of thousand years back." Fire answered.

Ambigious said: "Wow, I still find it hard to believe that time passes so much faster in here compared to outside… for how long have you been here Fire?"

Fire explained: "You must know, the hacker's attack on the server is slowing the simulation speed down quite a lot, normally it is even faster. In real time I have been on this server for about three to four years but in here… it has been a little bit over five thousand five hundred."

Ambigious sounded very impressed: "Holy crap, that is a long time."

Fire nodded and said: "Oh yes, it is."

The conversation ended and they just continued walking silently, the sun was now exactly in the middle of the sky but the leaves above protected them from most of the direct heat.

Ambigious turned around and said: "Hey, Fire. There is a small wooden hut on a clearing ahead."

Fire simply said: "We are there."

Ambigious and TehLulz cut through the last bit of plants and stepped out onto the clearing. They waited for the others to catch up and then they approached the hut together, they were not sure what they should think about Fire's ominous claim that they "were there".

As they walked towards the hut, Fire spotted a tiny yellow symbol above the door of the hut, the others didn't seem to notice it as it was too small. When the hut was only a short distance away from them, the symbol suddenly flashed. Fire sighed.

Three lightning bolts erupted from the symbol, each one hitting a different member of the group, it seemed to ignore Fire as well as freeZe in his arms. Ambigious, Unchosen and TehLulz weren't even able to say anything or react at all before the lightning bolts struck them, they fell to the ground paralyzed. The yellow symbol had changed its color to grey and was now slowly pulsating.

freeZe screamed: "Fire! What the hell was that?"

Fire just wanted to answer, then he felt pulse of energy nearby and a relatively low female voice spoke first: "Base defenses. I am sorry about this, I just had to make sure nobody finds this on accident."

The owner of the voice stepped out from the door of the hut. It was a short woman with pitch black skin, similar to that of freeZe. Her hair was completely white and very long, her eyes were entirely red. She was wearing a wide black robe making it hard to guess her figure, overall she was quite beautiful but there was an undeniable feeling of power in her presence.

Fire smiled and said: "I expected no less from you."

He carefully put freeZe down on the ground and walked towards the woman. He knelt down and opened his arms to hug her, this emphasized the size difference even more, she seemed like a child next to the three meter tall Fire.

Ambigious was the first one to recover from his paralysis, he slowly got up and said: "Ugh… That's your sister, right?"

Fire stood up again and replied: "Yes. If the matching skin, eye and hair color haven't made it obvious enough." He then added: "For your own safety, be careful what you say Ambigious."

Fire's sister looked at him questioningly but then she seemed to understand. She then proceeded to send out three floating dots of light to the victims of her lightning rune. Once the dots reached them they seemed to instantly recover.

She said: "I am very sorry for this but as I said, I need to keep the base safe. Fire, would you mind introducing us?"

Fire nodded and said: "Of course. Friends, this is my sister, her name is Shadow. Shadow, this is Ambigious, TehLulz, Unchosen and freeZe."

Shadow said: "Nice to meet you." Then she took a closer look at freeZe and said to Fire: "I see you found a mage too."

Fire replied: "Yes, would you mind healing her?"

Shadow nodded and said: "Will do. I assume that you'll tell me the whole story later."

Shadow walked over to freeZe and inspected her wounds and a few moments later the wounds already started healing rapidly. Half a minute later freeZe looked like she never had been burned.

freeZe looked at Shadow and simply said: "Thanks."

Fire said: "I guess I'll show you our base now. And just so you know, this hut is only the entrance."

Fire went into the hut first, crouching through the low doorframe, his friends and his sister followed right behind him.

"Ready to be impressed?" Fire asked.

Before anyone had the chance to answer, they started sinking into the floor. The floor, however, turned out to be only an intangible projection covering an elevator. The round elevator was richly decorated with iron, gold and a variety of gems.

The elevator descended into the depths of the world, slowly at first but then progressively faster. After a few minutes they felt that the elevator was slowing down again. Shortly afterwards the shaft opened up into a grand entrance hall, the walls and ceiling were made from polished stone engraved with various scenes. The hall was lit up by artfully cut glowstone crystals.

The apparently floating elevator came to a halt on a pedestal, a red carpet leading down some stairs onto the dark oak wood floor. Fire's friends were too impressed to say anything, they just followed Fire and Shadow through the hall, each of them looking at a different engraving but all wondering what would really await them here.


	40. Chapter 39

Jack had exchanged his suit for light chainmail armor with cloth underneath. On his feet he had sturdy leather boots. A light battleaxe was hanging on his leather belt on his left side and a round wooden shield was on his back. He was also carrying two daggers, one on the right side of his belt and one in his boot on the same side.

It was late in the afternoon, he was travelling across a wide meadow with tall but not very dense grass, the town of Redwater was just ahead of him. Jack had disconnected from his hacker client to be as undetectable as possible, this also meant that he wouldn't be able to use his powers in a pinch but that was a risk he was willing to take. After choosing his disguise he had spent several more hours reading various books about the world he was in before finally departing.

He had assumed the identity of a mercenary. He still went by his real name since that would make playing his role easier, he figured that Jack was common enough of a name. Andy had dropped him off in a dense forest near Redwater. From there on he was on his own as he didn't have the means to communicate with his fellow hackers.

Jack took a look at the town ahead of him, it was surrounded by a wooden wall that only offered protection from naturally spawning mobs and wouldn't last long in a siege. After a few more hundred meters of walking Jack stood before the open gates of Redwater. One of the two guards on duty greeted him with a lazy gesture of his hand. Jack had at least expected some questioning but the security of Redwater was surprisingly lax.

He quietly said to himself: "There is nothing of value to get here either, just fish and potions."

As Jack walked along the road paved with cobblestone, he decided to take his chainmail headgear off seeing that he wasn't in any danger. After a few more steps he reached the town proper. In the outer regions of the town only private houses lined the busy street but the closer he got to the center the more stores or taverns replaced them.

Jack could already hear the loud noise of the central marketplace as a particular store caught his eye. It was built into a normal house but the sign hanging from a pole by the door didn't have any letters on it, just a symbol of a red eye with some slightly curved diagonal white lines on both sides. After stopping and looking at the sign some more Jack recognized the white lines as stylized scratch marks from huge claws. Those symbols together reminded him of Fire, red eyes and claws. Jack decided to start his search for information in this very store.

As he opened the door he expected some bells to ring but he only heard a deep and dull sound from a gong that was being held in place above the door. The inside of the store wasn't very well lit, the only light sources were lanterns filled with water that had glowstone dust suspended in it, all the walls had been painted in dark colors. After taking a quick look through the store Jack noticed that this must be a store selling potions judging by all the vials and bottles that were lined up neatly on long wooden shelves.

Jack also noticed that he wasn't the only one in the store, there was one other customer, currently talking to the shopkeeper. After taking a closer look at the shopkeeper Jack's jaw almost dropped. The shopkeeper was Fire! At a second look Jack however noticed that the shopkeeper's eyes were yellow instead of red but otherwise he looked just like Fire. After regaining his composure Jack slowly walked towards the counter the shopkeeper was sitting behind and listened to the conversation.

The shopkeeper asked in a deep voice, similar to that of Fire: "You know what you are buying, right? That is a poison strong enough to kill a person several times over with what little is in this very flask I am holding."

Jack took a closer look at the customer, he was wearing clothes that seemed to oddly be both fit for going to a fine dinner and traveling through the wilderness.

The customer answered: "I know very well that I am buying concentrated Shineroot essence and I plan to do just that."

The shopkeeper chuckled and said: "I figured. What are you offering?"

The customer replied: "I assume gold coins or diamonds aren't going to cut it. How about this?"

With those words he pulled out a strange crystal from one of his pockets, it was pulsing with energy and slowly changed color.

The shopkeeper's facial expression didn't change in the slightest and he simply said: "That'll do."

Without any further words the customer took the poison from the shopkeeper's hands, stored it in a small padded box and left, rushing past Jack.

The shopkeeper looked at Jack: "Anything in particular you are looking for or are you just browsing?"

Jack replied: "I am looking for someone."

"I may be able to assist with that. Who are you looking for?" the shopkeeper inquired.

"His name is Fire…" Jack begun.

The shopkeeper cut him off: "If you are looking for the Fire who is the owner of this shop I don't know myself where he is, I'm not him, that much should be clear, I just do the sales. There are plenty of other Fires around though."

Jack was somewhat confused: "You mean people that look like… you and are called Fire?"

The shopkeeper laughed. "You've been living under a rock, haven't you? Of course there are multiple red eyed Mencur-Besh named Fire, there are only so many words for the flame element in your language. But as you are physically incapable of speaking or understanding ours, you'll have to settle with that, sorry."

In this single statement the shopkeeper had opened up more questions than he answered. What are Mencur-Besh? Jack assumed that they were more people like Fire, which would make everything more difficult. And what language was he talking about? Jack decided that it was best not to ask further questions and to instead buy some potions.

He said: "I think that may have helped me in some way." He then pointed at a potion and asked: "How much is this one?"

Jack ended up buying several speed potions, some regeneration potions and a single strength potion, which had cost more than all the others combined. He spent the rest of his day wandering the streets of Redwater and stocking up on supplies. He decided that his current method of looking for Fire wouldn't lead to much, now that he had found out that not only there were multiple Fires that presumably looked almost the same, no there was an entire species of them, apparently called the Mencur-Besh. Jack wondered if that name had any deeper meaning to it besides sounding somewhat intimidating.

In the evening Jack decided to take a room in one of the better looking taverns, if there was anything he had a lot of it was gold coins. After renting a room for one night he decided to stay down at the bar for a bit and listen. If anyone would have any rumors, he would hear them. Bars were the go-to place for that after all.

He ended up sitting at a table with two town guards and another mercenary called Nathaniel who seemed to already know the guards. All of them were still wearing their equipment, for the guards it was their armored uniform, Nathaniel's outfit was similar to that of Jack, only using a longsword instead of a battleaxe.

Nathaniel asked: "How's business been for you, Jack?"

Jack remembered the backstory he had set up for himself and replied: "Not good, not bad. I spent the last few weeks trying to get to this town. You would not believe how many bandits are in the woods south of here. I wonder where they were when I was hired to escort some empty caravan, don't ask me why, as long as I get my gold…"

Nathaniel nodded and said: "Seems like we are in the same boat. The coin is coming but just barely enough to keep this stupid chainmail and sword from getting rusty."

One of the guards took a big gulp from his beer and said: "I used to be a mercenary just like you but then I took this post as a guard. And let me tell you, being a guard is just marginally better. It's trading action for more secure pay."

The other guard just nodded.

Jack spent the rest of the evening talking to Nathaniel and the guards over a game of cards until they all got tired, the guards were the first ones to leave, then Jack himself went to his room where he took off his chainmail and weapons and dropped into his bed.

Before falling asleep he thought that he would just have to find Fire another way, just asking random people wouldn't get him far…


	41. Chapter 40

Fire and Shadow went ahead of the others into an expansive corridor with a polished dark oak floor. The walls and ceiling were made from rounded and polished rock, more engravings covered them. The engravings pictured various things. One showed plants in incredible detail, another one showed two warriors in a fierce duel, a third one just showed a calm meadow with some mountains in the background.

Unchosen said: "These engravings are beautiful. It must have taken a long time to make them all."

Fire chuckled and replied: "This base is about three thousand years old, let's just say I have had a lot of time on my hands. Me and many others, some of those engravings are made by guests, others by demons."

They were now at a round intersection with corridors and staircases going off in different directions, each of them was labeled with letters engraved into the rock.

Shadow said: "We will give you a tour of the base later, I think now it is time that you all get cleaned up and get proper clothes… especially you Fire, that coat may as well not be there at all."

Fire explained: "We'll head to the living area."

He went through an entrance and the others followed. Only Shadow went another way, she said that she would prepare something in the meantime.

The corridor they were in didn't have engravings, the walls and ceiling were covered in large polished wooden planks and the patterns in the wood were interesting to look at by themselves. After walking a few steps you could almost forget that you were deep underground. The corridor ended in a large room, which also had wooden walls and ceiling.

Fire led his friends up some stairs to yet another corridor. This one had doors along both sides.

He explained: "This is the area with the living quarters, each of you gets one. The rooms aren't all the same so take a look first and take the one you like best. All rooms have a hot spring in a separate room. It's as close to a luxury hotel as it gets. After washing yourself you can choose some clothes from the wardrobe. When you are done come back to the room we were just in, just sit down at the table."

Ambigious replied: "Alright, will do."

Fire started walking towards the room at the end of the corridor, which was his own apparently, then he remembered something.

He warned his friends: "And don't use the black soap, it's caustic and contains razor sharp metal splinters. It's made to clean scales, not skin."

"I'll remember that." freeZe muttered.

About half an hour later Fire, Unchosen and freeZe were sitting at the table in the entrance room and waited for the others. Fire's clothing hadn't changed much, he had only switched his ruined old clothes for identical new ones. freeZe was wearing black nether wool clothes with red patterns on them. Unchosen had removed the vines on his body and was now wearing plain white clothes.

freeZe said: "I still find it amazing that you have all this luxury in your base. You sure had plenty of time to build this but how hasn't anybody found it yet?"

Unchosen agreed: "Yeah I was wondering about that too."

Fire explained: "On the way here I briefly mentioned that this base is hidden by magic. The clearing with the wooden hut has a projection above it. From the air it looks like there isn't even a clearing there. To prevent people from tunneling into my base there is also an ender field warp active, this means my base exists in a pocket dimension of sorts. The elevator is the only way in and out and serves as a portal to this pocket."

freeZe said: "That sounds logical enough. I suppose setting it up isn't easy though."

Fire smiled and said: "Yes, multiple mages had to work together to create a stable pocket dimension, there is no way a single mage can create a dimension this large. The dimension is actually much bigger than my base so that I have room to expand."

While Fire was talking Ambigious came down the stairs and took a seat next to his sister. He was wearing blue pants and a red shirt with a black leather jacket above. Fire also quickly noticed that his right index finger was slightly red.

Fire said: "You touched the soap, didn't you?"

Ambigious readjusted his sunglasses and said quietly: "Yeah…"

TehLulz arrived just a few minutes later, his clothes were a little more formal than the others' but not as formal as the suit he had been wearing before that.

Fire announced: "Now that we are complete, I'll show you something."

He then proceeded to lead them through a large door into a round room, in the middle of the room was a table with eight seats around it. Above the table was a strange wooden device with all manner of pipes and levers.

TehLulz wanted to know: "What is that?"

Fire replied: "That is a machine from the first era, that's from year zero of this server's timeline to about six hundred years after that. It is a masterpiece of redstone engineering and applied magic and as far as I know it is the only one of its kind that is still functional."

"And what does it do?" TehLulz asked.

Fire said: "It makes food."

Ambigious said: "That's good because I am hungry like a wolf."

Fire walked over to the machine and sat down on one of the cushioned seats. He pulled a lever and the seat he was sitting on automatically adjusted itself to his size.

"Nice." freeZe commented.

After the others also had taken a seat Shadow came in through the door with a big plate in her hands. On the plate were all kinds of food. They could see meat, fruits, vegetables, cheese and also things that they had never seen before. Shadow put the plate in the middle of the table and took a seat for herself.

Fire quickly explained how the machine worked, you took a bit of food and then you could cook it in many different ways. The machine also served as a dispenser for various beverages.

Ambigious took a piece of cheese and roasted it in a stream of flames coming out of one pipe, then he wrapped it in some bacon and put it on his own plate.

He said jokingly: "Hey, freeZe look. I can cook!" Then he asked Fire: "Does this thing have beer too?"

Fire laughed and answered: "Sure, but not only beer. It has virtually every beverage you can think of. Just make sure to ask me about those you don't know. To select one just push that button."

Ambigious pushed and suddenly a projection appeared in front of his eyes, it had different kinds of beverages on it. Ambigious selected a dark beer and a few seconds later the machine had dispensed a large glass of it.

Ambigious said: "Wow, fancy interface. I'm starting to like magic more and more."

After about an hour they were done eating and Ambigious was starting to get drunk.

He said: "That's good stuff. But I think I shouldn't drink more…"

Shadow remarked: "At least you are noticing it… I know some people who would deny being drunk even if they are lying on the floor."

Ambigious answered: "I know some of those too."

"I think we should go to bed now…" freeZe said who had also been drinking a fair bit but by far not as much as her brother.

Fire stood up and explained: "You can just go to your room and sleep for as long as you like. After you are done sleeping I will give you a tour through the base, after that we'll start the training."

TehLulz said: "Something just came to my mind, the training seems like the character creation when playing an RPG and us getting here is just a very elaborate you-all-meet-in-a-tavern plot."

Fire laughed and replied: "I never really considered that point of view. Anyways, you should sleep now. I'll go take care of some things in the meantime."

Fire's friends gladly went to their rooms and laid down in their beds that were so much more comfortable than anything they had slept on so far on the server. Meanwhile Fire and Shadow walked off into different parts of the base to do different things, lots of things still had to be prepared before the training could start.


	42. Chapter 41

Fire sprinted down a large stone spiral staircase leading down into the lowest parts of his base. He had no reason to go any slower since he was on his own now, no need to wait for anybody. His steps were precise and he didn't have to worry about tripping or falling.

When he arrived at the bottom of the staircase yet another large room with polished stone walls and ceiling was in front of him, not as decorated as the entry hall but still very appealing to look at. A large steel door was on one of the walls, a lever next to it.

Fire pulled the lever and the door slowly swung open without making a sound. Behind the door was a dark room with a huge metal structure that looked like an oven, it was cold at the moment. On the left and right side of it stood two large statues made from a dark metal, they were two times bigger than Fire himself. The statues were humanoid and finely crafted but lacked faces and had completely smooth skin. In one corner there was a heap of blaze powder with a pipe above it. As Fire entered the room the statues came to life and took a few slow but by no means clumsy steps towards him and then came to a halt.

Fire gave them some orders, then they started moving quickly and did the task Fire ordered them to do. One of them positioned itself at a giant bellows located at the back of the oven, the other one started shoveling blaze powder from the heap into the oven. After the first statue had started working the bellows the blaze powder started burning and the room heated up immediately.

Fire was satisfied and left the room and closed the door. This room was directly below his forge and now that the heater was running again the forge should start warming up, a few hours later it would be operational.

Fire proceeded to check his armory and potion lab and made sure that everything was in order. After that he met up with Shadow at the table in the living area.

She asked: "Everything alright?"

Fire nodded.

Shadow asked: "Now, tell me. How did you find a mage in the mine?"

Fire replied: "I only found out that she was a mage halfway through the journey by letting her use a blaze core that I activated. She seems to have a lot of energy at her disposal but her magic seems to have a very strong will of its own, it took over one time shortly after I was wounded and then another time a bit later. The second time was on purpose though."

Shadow said: "I assume that is where the burns came from. What are her affinities?"

Fire answered: "From what the others told me, she managed to produce lightning bolts strong enough to outright pulverize a skeletal mage. She seems to have an easy time with fire too but she can't produce it from thin air like with the lightning."

Shadow raised her eyebrows. "Pulverizing a skeletal mage? Just guided by instinct? That sure is impressive. Better than when my magic took over the first time but then again, Ender magic is a lot less impressive when used randomly. I just ended up floating in the air awkwardly."

Fire put down the blaze core on the table asked: "Could you unlock this blaze core and see how much energy is in there?"

Shadow replied: "Sure thing."

The blaze core started floating up into the air and a purple sphere formed around it, a barrier to catch the escaping energy. The blaze core released an explosion of fire which kept raging inside the sphere, trying to find an exit but eventually was entirely absorbed. The blaze core floated down onto the table again, it had stopped glowing and now instead had turned grey.

"And?" Fire asked.

Shadow said: "That is indeed a fairly large amount of energy. I could also sense a lot of instability. I suspect that she will have trouble controlling her magic in the beginning but that is nothing that can't be fixed with some good training. She has a lot of potential."

Fire said: "Speaking about training. Could you prepare some projections for them to fight for the basic combat training?"

Shadow smiled and said: "Already did."

"You are my sister after all."

Fire then asked: "Could you also send one of your flying demons into the nearby swamp, there is a witch living there who saved my life on the way here."

Shadow answered: "Aurone? Sure thing. You'll have to instruct the demon though."

Fire noted: "I did notice that we don't have any demon tongue potion left."

"Let's just say I have been dealing with demons a lot over the course of the last year and used up the entire supply." Shadow said.

"I'm not going to inquire further." Fire replied.

They walked through the corridor to the hub and then took a staircase upwards towards Shadow's summoning chamber.

She opened the wooden door and immediately the scent of burning herbs met their noses. The room itself was only lit up by eternally burning candles, the walls and ceiling were covered with pitch black nether wool and the floor by a black carpet. The only space that wasn't occupied by fabric was a spot in the center where a circle of runes had been drawn on black rock with white chalk.

Shadow immediately began the summoning ritual, making the chalk runes pulsate with Ender magic. Fire could feel energy flow into the center of the room where it condensed. After a few seconds a silhouette became visible in the summoning circle and a few more seconds later the demon fully materialized. It looked just like you would expect a flying demon to look, complete with long tail, bat wings and small horns on the forehead.

The demonic language wasn't so much of a real language and more of a way to transmit concepts. Only if both participants of the conversation knew the language they would be able to understand each other. Lying in the language was possible but misunderstandings were not. This made it the only way to reliably give a demon orders. Most demons would follow regular orders as well but there were some of them that loved to deliberately misunderstand their instructions.

Fire started speaking in the demonic language: "Greetings."

The demon replied: "Greetings, Fire."

The demon then asked: "What is it?"

Fire said: "I would like you to deliver the newest issue of my potion journal to a witch called Aurone living in the swamp nearby."

Fire didn't need to specify further as the language made sure that the demon knew which swamp and which Aurone he meant.

The demon nodded, then said: "Will do."

Fire gave his sister a nod and she released the demon from the summoning circle, it opened the door and made its way into the library of the base.

Fire said: "I guess I'll have to brew more of the demon tongue potion, it will be a good practice potion for Unchosen as well once he is a little more experienced."

Shadow said: "Talking about that. Where will we go after the training is done, I mean in what order will we get the artefacts?"

Fire replied: "First we take the old underground railway to Drandin, I have some business there, I need to see how the drill is coming along. From there we'll go to Rockhaven on foot, or maybe I can arrange some other means of transportation. We should be able to get the Axe by diplomatic means. Then the hard part begins."

Shadow said: "I'm guessing the dragon is next."

Fire said: "Yes, we will restock at the base and then head towards the stronghold. The location of the stronghold is known but nobody has ever returned from the End alive or at all as far as I know. We'll have to go in completely blindly and we just have to be as prepared as possible. If we succeed in getting the dragon egg, we'll have to get the locations of the other artefacts. I'll ask the other Mencur-Besh to keep their eyes open."

Shadow said: "I'll go to sleep for a couple of hours, haven't done that in a few weeks."

Fire walked out the door and said: "Before you go to sleep, would you mind setting up some more powerful projections in the training room? I need to get back in the groove of fighting again."

Shadow nodded and followed Fire to the training room.


	43. Chapter 42

As freeZe woke up she couldn't tell how much time had passed, there was no way for sunlight to reach her room and there were no clocks in it either. The room she had chosen for herself was rectangular and had polished wooden walls and a carpet on the floor. The bed she was lying in was disproportionally large for her size, it could have easily housed four if not five people.

freeZe sat up and stretched, then she reached over to her right and after feeling for a few seconds she found and pushed the wooden button next to the bed. With a soft crackle the glowstone lamps in the ceiling turned on, illuminating every corner of the room.

Still feeling sleepy, freeZe let herself drop onto her cushion again and just stayed there for a few more minutes. She then reluctantly threw her cover away and stood up. She wandered over to a tall wooden door with a glass pane in the middle. Behind the door was the room's bathroom consisting of an expansive bath tub carved into a wall, forming a small cavern. The tub was fed by a hot spring at its bottom and the overflowing water followed a small channel and disappeared into a steel grate. There was also a sink with a mirror above it. Even though the air was very humid, the mirror wasn't foggy at all as if kept dry by magic, which probably wasn't far from the truth.

freeZe considered taking a bath but then shrugged.

She said: "Maybe later…"

Then she wondered why she had come to the bathroom in the first place and went back to the bedroom. She walked over to the wardrobe and searched it for something to wear. She chose a simplistic nether woolen outfit consisting of some white pants and a blue shirt. There were other things in there too, including an elegant black dress that freeZe would have loved to try on but she felt like going to a base tour in a dress would be a bad idea.

freeZe also took some white shoes from the wardrobe and proceeded to exit her room. The corridor was absolutely silent, she could only hear her muffled steps on the carpet and her own breath, it seemed like she was the first to wake up.

As she arrived at the end of the corridor with the rooms she went down the stairs to the area which resembled a lounge. Down there she stopped to admire a very detailed wood carving in the wall. It showed multiple tall humanoids that looked almost exactly like Fire alongside some regular humans, all were wearing mining gear of some sort and held pickaxes in their hands. freeZe looked for a title and indeed found one in the bottom right corner, it were three words that didn't tell her much, "Beginnings of Drandin". It did however remind her of the mystery that Fire was. Even after spending months with him, she didn't know all that much about him. When she thought about it, it hadn't bothered her that much up until now. In the quarry she had been content with knowing that he would keep them safe, now she was getting curious.

She started walking down the hallway to the main hub. When she arrived there she looked at the different corridors and the symbols engraved above them. One of them had a book symbol above it, below it the word "Library" was engraved into the rock.

She thought to herself. Didn't Fire mention something about the Books of Knowledge? If anywhere they should be in his library. freeZe decided that taking a look couldn't hurt. She started walking down the corridor. The walls were made from the same polished rock as those of the entry hall, of course covered in engravings as well. While walking freeZe took brief looks at some of them, the one that fascinated her the most was that of a robed woman standing on top of a mountain during a thunderstorm. Was the lightning coming from the clouds or from the woman? She moved on.

The corridor soon reached a tall wooden door with golden decorations, it didn't seem to have a door handle. As soon as freeZe approached it she knew why, the door silently swung open and an intense smell filled the air. The smell was overwhelming, it was a mixture of wood, paper, old leather and burning candles. In short, it was the smell of knowledge. freeZe coughed but kept walking forwards into the library.

The library was much bigger than she had expected, the corridor had expanded into a huge, spherical cavern with dark oak bookshelves lining the walls on multiple levels. The whole room was only sparsely lit by candles which freeZe assumed to be magical simply because they hadn't burned down in the slightest.

The bookshelves had labels with different categories, there were books about smithing, books about potions, books about geography and also some categories that freeZe didn't know the meaning of. She started wandering the rows and looked at books of varying sizes, colors and binding materials. Just as freeZe was about to take a strange book bound in metal from a shelf, she heard a voice that was awfully close to her ear.

"Are you looking for something specific?" It asked.

freeZe was startled and turned around quickly. As soon as she had turned around, she was confronted with Shadow's red eyes mere centimeters in front of her face. Had she followed her? For how long? Why?

freeZe stuttered: "N-No…"

Ever since she had seen Fire's sister for the first time, freeZe had found her to be strange. She was quite friendly but there was also something about her that seemed uncanny, freeZe couldn't quite put a finger on it.

Still waiting on Shadow to say something freeZe backed up a step and looked around, something seemed off about Shadow's appearance…

Shadow made a wide gesture with her hand and said: "There must be something you are looking for, just tell me."

Suddenly freeZe realized exactly what was so unsettling about Fire's sister. While she had been moving her hand, her shadow had stood completely still. freeZe couldn't help but stare at it, then suddenly the shadow was waving at her and she heard an otherworldly giggle.

freeZe pointed behind Shadow and said: "Your… shadow."

Shadow replied: "I see, you have noticed her." After a short pause she added: "She's harmless, mostly. She was a byproduct of my… ascension."

freeZe decided not to inquire any further and instead said: "Well, what I was looking for… there is this carving in the lounge that shows multiple people like Fire… who are they?"

Shadow said: "They are the Mencur-Besh. That is Fire's species. I'll not go into detail here, Fire will explain that to you four later. That and a lot more."

Before freeZe was able to say anything else, Shadow had disappeared. No matter how fascinated she was by magic, she couldn't deny that it could be creepy if not downright frightening.

freeZe shrugged and then reached for the book bound in iron again, to her surprise it didn't have a title on the outside. It was a fairly large book and due to the metal cover it was quite heavy. She just sat down right on the floor and opened the book. On the first page there was a drawing of a skeleton, above the drawing was the title "Creatures of the Night, Book IV: The Undead". The author seemed to be someone named Andras Thornhook.

freeZe started reading. The prologue told her a tale of the dangers of the night and referenced previous books and it confirmed her suspicion that Andras Thornhook was a hunter, it wasn't clear of what kind. The text was written in fairly simple words but there was something freeZe liked about how everything was described in short but accurate sentences. The book explained where you could expect different kinds of undead, how they behaved and most importantly, how to kill them.

freeZe shuddered at the description of ghouls, it didn't make it any less terrifying that it was accompanied by a drawing of a hulking, blood smeared monster that had adorned itself with various skulls. She hoped that she would never encounter one of them on their travels. A few pages later freeZe learned that ghouls weren't the worst undead that could happen to her, not by a long shot.

As much as the book fascinated her with its simple yet accurate language and its content, she decided to put it back into the shelf, the iron binding scratched along the wood as she did. As she left the library she couldn't help but suspect something jumping at her behind every corner.

freeZe sighed, she really needed to get her mind off that book. It wasn't just the words or the illustrations, there was something else about it that left a lasting impression in her mind. She quickly walked back into the hub and from there into the lounge, where TehLulz and to her surprise Ambigious were waiting for her.

She smiled and shouted: "Finally you aren't the last to wake up!" Then added: "And I do understand you now, magic is indeed creepy. But not as creepy as ghouls…"

Ambigious apparently stopped listening after the statement about magic and answered: "Finally."


	44. Chapter 43

After some waiting everyone had gathered around the table in the lounge. A group of wingless demons wearing formal suits were in the process of serving them breakfast.

One of them asked with its scratchy and slightly resonating voice: "What would you like to drink? Water? Milk? Tea? Or maybe something different?"

Most of them just ordered water but Shadow, knowing the range of drinks, ordered a beverage called "tearfruit juice". Fire ordered his drink in the demonic language so it was impossible to understand what Fire ordered exactly but it seemed to amuse the demon. After having taken all the orders, the demon waiters left.

Ambigious asked: "Did you tell them to wear those suits?"

Shadow replied: "No, it was their idea. They seem to like something about that part of human culture."

The conversation came to a halt as the demon waiter walked into the room again with a tablet full of glasses, it handed everyone their drinks. The tearfruit juice that Shadow had ordered was blue, to nobody's surprise. Fire's drink on the other hand was hard to categorize, it was perfectly clear, it could have been mistaken for water but it was even clearer than that.

TehLulz asked: "Fire, what is that?"

Fire laughed and said: "This? This is drandinian Heavybrew. It is made from mushrooms that grow near bedrock. Chemically reacts with just about anything that isn't glass, obsidian or something similar. In combination with water it turns into a strong alcoholic drink. If someone happens to drink it in its pure form, it'll kill them. If it's a human that is. Mencur-Besh use it as the core substance in their metabolism, I'm drinking this because I need to get back into peak form after one year of malnourishment."

freeZe asked: "You two keep dropping that word. Mencur-Besh here, Mencur-Besh there… Shadow already told me that that is your species, Fire. What is it all about?"

Fire took a deep breath and explained: "About ninety percent of the current population of the server is NPCs. They are controlled by the combined calculation power of the brains of everyone logged into the server, so they are not very different from regular humans. The Mencur-Besh were an idea the admins had early on. They thought that they could implement an NPC species that worked differently from humans, one that wasn't dependent on the people on the server. It took them quite some time to figure out a way of making truly intelligent NPCs without utilizing a human brain."

Fire paused to drink from his glass.

"They figured out that it was impossible for a computer of our time to simulate multiple complex individuals at the same time. The admins succeeded in simulating a simple personality, it could make rational choices and operate on its own, the only thing that was missing was complex emotions. This could not be regarded as a full personality but it was simple enough to allow multiple individuals to exist at the same time. Every Mencur-Besh has a distinct personality but only limited emotions. Knowledge and skills are shared across all individuals, memories are not."

TehLulz commented: "Interesting."

Fire continued: "Mencur-Besh come in seven different variations, one for each magical element, this is also what determines the color of their eyes. The element also influences which of the strengths of the Mencur-Besh are especially pronounced. Fire Mencur-Besh like myself have red eyes and are strong. Air ones have yellow eyes and are fast. Earth ones have green eyes, they are larger and extremely durable. Water ones have blue eyes and exceptionally sharp senses. Life ones have white eyes and are powerful mages. Wither ones have black eyes and are immune to magic. Ender ones have purple eyes, they are physically weaker but can teleport at will and have access to telepathy."

Ambigious, chewing on some bread, said with half-full mouth: "Wow, Fire. That's a lot of information for breakfast."

Fire chuckled: "You are right. Just let me finish this and then you can eat in peace."

Ambigious nodded: "Acceptable."

Fire explained: "There are about two thousand Mencur-Besh on the server, so an extreme minority compared to humans. And as you know, humans, this includes the NPCs, turned out to be quite mistrusting towards non-human intelligent beings. So the Mencur-Besh keep their numbers down to appear less threatening, we only reproduce when our population is low. In addition to that we try to get into positions of power in human society and, failing that, try to gain the favor of those in said positions."

freeZe asked: "Basically a conspiracy of scaled superhumans trying to take over the server?"

Fire nodded slowly: "Yes, that is what it looks like. In reality that is just our way of making sure we don't get wiped out. The influence we exert is just a means to an end. If an all-out war were to happen between the Mencur-Besh and humans, the Mencur-Besh wouldn't stand a chance. So we try to keep any and all information about us hidden and if someone finds out, we try to recruit them. They get to benefit from the massive network of connections that we have all over this world and in turn they keep quiet and do us some favors from time to time."

Unchosen remarked: "So, I guess we are part of this too, now that we have heard the story."

"Exactly." Fire replied. "Every ally of the Mencur-Besh receives a magical mark on their body, comparable to a tattoo. They will then be able to identify allies on contact. A handshake is all it takes to know if someone is trustworthy or not. We rarely have defectors… and if so, not for long."

freeZe shuddered at the implication Fire made: "From what you just told us, I don't want to get on the wrong side of the Mencur-Besh."

Ambigious said: "But that mark-tattoo thing sounds interesting, does that mean we get one?"

Fire nodded.

Shadow said: "But I think that can wait a few minutes. Like Ambigious said, we are still having breakfast."

After those words she emptied her glass of tearfruit juice. Only a few seconds later the demon waiter appeared again to bring her another one. She gave the demon a smile and the next moment it had left the room again.

The next minutes were quiet, nobody except for Ambigious had been eating while they had been listening to Fire's monologue. They hungrily put food on their plates and started eating. After the breakfast was over Fire told them that he had preparations to make and they should meet him in the hub an hour later.

* * *

Unchosen was the first one to arrive at the hub, Fire and Shadow were already standing in the hub's center, waiting. It didn't take long for the others to arrive.

Fire said: "The first thing we have to do is give you your mark. Besides being recognized as an ally of the Mencur-Besh the mark has the added benefit of serving as a key to most of the magical doors in my base. Who wants to be first?"

Ambigious stepped up before anybody else had the chance, he walked up to Fire and then didn't quite know what to do. He looked at Fire questioningly.

Fire just said: "Hold still."

With those words Fire reached forward and grabbed Ambigious' right arm by the wrist and lifted it up. He pointed his index finger at the back of Ambigious' hand, a slight glow surrounding it. As Fire's finger touched Ambigious' hand, a surge of pain went through Ambigious but before he had any chance to react, the pain was gone again, Fire let go of his hand. Ambigious looked at his skin and found that there now was something printed onto it. A plain red eye without visible iris and pupil, it looked much like Fire's own eyes. Below the eye were two sets of stylized black scratch marks. As Ambigious stared at the eye, the eye stared back and suddenly blinked, making Ambigious recoil in surprise. A few seconds later, the eye started to fade and blended in with his skin perfectly.

"Freaky." He said.

Shadow said: "If everyone allied with us would have a giant eye on their skin, it would be quite silly. That's why it fades."

Ambigious just nodded and stared at his hand for a few more seconds. Unchosen was the next one to receive the Eye-and-Claws mark, after him was freeZe and then TehLulz.

Fire said: "Alright, shake hands with someone now."

As Ambigious shook his sister's hand, he felt a subliminal feeling that he had never experienced before, he assumed that this was the sign by which he could tell other bearers of the Eye-and-Claws mark.

Unchosen asked: "So, how many marked allies do you have out there?"

Fire thought for a moment and then said: "It should be around nine thousand, not everyone friendly to us gets the Eye-and-Claws, only those who prove to be reliable and trustworthy."

Shadow smiled and announced: "Alright, today we will begin the training. For today everyone goes with both of us. In the future you will attend only the lessons that you have chosen. Today will be a bit of an introduction to the base."

Fire walked into a tunnel and made an inviting motion with his hand: "Come on, let's go."


	45. Chapter 44

It was early in the morning when Phoebe opened the front door of the apartment block she lived in and stepped out onto the snow covered sidewalk. She pulled up the zipper of her winter coat all the way and put the hood over her head, the air was biting cold and a strong wind was blowing through the streets.

With fast steps she walked down the sidewalk to the next tram station. Phoebe never had to wait for the tram if it was on time, she had been taking this route for years and she had the exact timing down. The doors slid open and she stepped on in, on the inside of the tram it was no less cold than on the outside, but at least there was no wind. After sitting down near the door Phoebe relaxed and closed her eyes, she hadn't gotten nearly as much sleep that night as she had wanted to.

When the announcer said the name of Phoebe's destination she opened her eyes again and stood up, a minute later she was walking on the snowy sidewalk again.

She said to herself: "Can't even keep the sidewalks snow free… Mayor Scrooge strikes again."

She was now in the city's office district where skyscrapers were the dominant type of building. Phoebe was walking towards such a skyscraper, this one in particular wasn't tall enough to stand out but not short enough to be remarkable for that either. After walking in through the front door the keen eye would notice that this inconspicuous skyscraper had less than inconspicuous security.

Phoebe walked up to a door that had a whole array of biometric scanners and two armed guards beside it. She routinely entered her codes and let the devices scan her hands and her eyes. After her identity had been confirmed, one of the guards gave her a friendly nod and opened the door for her.

She rode up an elevator to about the middle of the skyscraper. As the doors opened, Phoebe's workplace came into vision. The entire floor was one big room and didn't have a single window. There were huge servers standing out in the open, dominating most of the room. There were a few desks scattered through the room, some were empty and some had people sitting at them.

No, Phoebe's workplace wasn't ordinary in any way. In fact, it wasn't even officially a workplace. Phoebe worked for a private, that part was important, intelligence agency, it didn't have a name because it was an intelligence agency that was still truly secret and thus had no outward appearances to make.

Phoebe hung her coat onto a rack on the wall. Below her coat she was wearing plain black clothes that looked very practical but also had a casual look to them. Phoebe was averagely tall, had brown hair with occasional blue and red strands in between, her eyes were green.

Just those green eyes were now scanning the room for a specific man, Gerald, also known as Big G. He was the one who did most of the IT related things, not because he was the only one who could do it but because he was the one who could do it best. And he made sure to make it known to everyone that he was in fact the best. Phoebe had found him to be an insufferable genius type of person, fortunately the genius part took priority most of the time.

A few moments later she spotted him, which was quite easy, seeing that he was wearing a shirt that had "Big G" written on it in neon letters. Contrasting the expectations set by his nickname, Gerald was a tall and very skinny man, not unlike a stick figure. His hair was short and blonde, his eyes were blue. Usually Gerald was quite cheery but today something seemed to deeply trouble him. When he saw Phoebe walking towards him he got up from his chair to meet her half way.

With a hand on the back of his neck he said: "Something very bad happened."

Phoebe just raised an eyebrow, signaling him to keep talking.

"Someone somehow got into our database and was searching for… something." He quickly explained.

Phoebe froze in place.

Gerald continued: "I don't even know how that is possible, on multiple levels. Our database servers are on an internal network without connection to the internet. None of the computers in here have ever had any sort of connection to the outside. But you know what worries me the most? Whoever that was, they got through our encryption in four point two seconds. In other words, I have never seen this kind of attack before. Anywhere. Ever."

Phoebe asked: "What now?"

Suddenly Gerald grinned. "I have no idea why but they did nothing to mask their location, Hannah and Josh left to their address just half an hour ago. I still can't shake the feeling that they did that on purpose though, it seems like too easy of a mistake to make."

Phoebe nodded: "Yeah, I'm with you there G. Let's hope Hannah and Josh will be fine. If everything goes to hell, I'll go there myself with some of the guards, using brute force if needed."

Phoebe went to her desk and just sat there, she reasoned that doing anything with the computers would be risky since they had a potential security leak somewhere.

* * *

Everyone was relieved as they saw Hannah and Josh come in with three other people, a man in a wheelchair and two women. One of the women had short black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing blue jeans and a plain green shirt. The other woman had long red hair and blue eyes. Her clothes consisted of blue jeans and a black leather jacket. The man in the wheelchair had short brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing yet another pair of blue jeans and a white shirt.

Hannah, a short woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, announced: "This is them." She paused, then spotted Phoebe. "Oh, hello Phoebe. We should interrogate them, pick one."

Phoebe smiled at the fact that, as usual, Hannah kept everything as short as possible, even in this very unusual situation. When you work in a truly secret intelligence agency being hacked wasn't the norm, that was reserved for the non-secret ones.

* * *

The interrogation rooms were simply office rooms one floor higher, which had been outfitted with microphones and cameras. Phoebe had decided to interrogate the black haired woman with the green shirt.

Phoebe began: "Name?"

The woman answered: "Sarah."

Needless to say, this wasn't a standard interrogation, it was more of an informal questioning, the agency wasn't big on formality.

Phoebe continued: "So, Sarah… who of you three launched that attack?"

Sarah folded her hands in her lap and answered: "That would be me."

"Why?"

"We hoped that we would find information about some people we are looking for in your database. We didn't."

Phoebe was somewhat surprised by her directness and asked: "We'll come back to those people later, now tell me about who you three are. From what Josh told me you had some sort of research setup in that warehouse of yours."

Sarah replied: "Yes, we were researching there. Before you ask, we are researching brain-computer interfaces."

"Interesting."

With a smile Sarah added: "And we were actually successful."

Phoebe raised an eyebrow: "How successful?"

"So successful that we aren't merely researching anymore, we are testing. We can freely transfer data between the human brain and any computer. All that is needed is the translation software we developed."

Phoebe was honestly taken by surprise by this. Reading brain patterns using sensors and interpreting them was one thing, free data transfer was another one. She didn't have to think long to see the potential applications for this technology, both good and bad. A cold shiver ran down her spine.

Sarah continued: "That was also how I managed to get into your database, it was only a matter of using the electricity lines for data transfer, it's been done before. Once I was inside, the encryption wasn't a problem either. The human brain has fascinating calculative capabilities."

Phoebe tried her best not to sound absolutely unprofessional: "Okay… so you hacked our database… with your brain?"

Sarah lifted up her hands, she had been hiding them under the table up until that moment. On her fingertips, no, inside her fingertips were black, metallic objects.

She explained: "Those are interface devices with the software on them, I've had them grafted onto my bones and connected to my nerves. They allow me to interact with any electronic device I touch. They also allow me to connect to other people's brains."

Phoebe wasn't sure if she should recoil in horror or lean forward in fascination so she just remained in her current position. This interrogation was going in an entirely different direction than she had intended.

She asked: "Alright. Just… just tell me the story of this invention from the very beginning, maybe I'll understand your motivations then."

Sarah began: "From the start? Alright. So, we met each other about nine years ago, back then we were six people. Harald, Anna and I are here today. Then there were Louis, David and his girlfriend Daniela. We all had just finished studying at our university, our dream was to create a brain-computer interface, much like the one we have now. But as there are only three of us here you might be able to tell that not everything went as smoothly as we had wished." She sighed. "We built up on research that had already been done, the professors from the university were a great help back then. They supplied us with all the information we needed. In the first two years we made some progress formulating theories, we had everything figured out, then the money started running low. We knew that we needed to get some kind of prototype to get some funding or else we would have to abandon the project. Let's just say that this prototype was by no means as elegant as the devices in fingertips. It needed to be implanted directly into the brain, David had volunteered to be the one getting the implant. We used up the rest of our money to pay the surgeon."

Phoebe interrupted: "The surgery went wrong, didn't it?"

Sarah bitterly replied: "Cliché isn't it? So now we were sitting there with no money and with one of our team dead, we were on the brink of giving up." Her face brightened again. "That was when Peter came in."

"Who's that?"

"We didn't know that either in the beginning, he said that he had heard about the accident from a professor and wished to support our project. He seemed to have a lot of money at his disposal, he became the sole funder the project. We bought an abandoned warehouse, the one you found us in, and proper equipment, an MRI system for instance. Despite having lost David to our research we kept going, we had already come too far to give up, especially now that money wasn't a problem anymore. We decided that an implant was the wrong way to go if we ever hoped our technology to be available to the general population."

Phoebe said: "Reasonable. So that is how you came up with the contact thing?"

"Yes, after half a year of research we found that we could use the way our computers work to connect brain to machine only using special software that exploited a very interesting phenomenon that we still don't quite understand. Making the software was a different story, it's the human brain we are talking about here, one of the most complex calculation systems in the known universe. The whole process took another two years, then we were finally able to connect. But yeah, as you see there are still two people to many in our group so something must have gone wrong, right?"

"So, what happened?" Phoebe wasn't sure if she really wanted to know.

Sarah continued: "The first test was a success, we were able to pull a live feed from Daniela's eyes onto our monitor and Harald managed to create an abstract painting with just his thoughts. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. Over the course of the next months we refined our software and discovered new ways to interface with our brains. In the end we were able to have complete control in both directions. We knew that we could outsource the control over certain things in our body to a computer, like vital functions. The thought was that while the 'weaker' computer took care of keeping us alive the 'stronger' brain could be used to make calculations at insane speeds. We performed some experiments and everything went according to plan. Now we needed to get some hard scientific data we could present to the outside. So Louis got into the MRI system and we connected him up. Halfway through the experiment the power went out, in the few seconds that it took the backup generators to come live we lost the connection. It was horrifying to see how Louis' brain reacted, it didn't have control over his vitals and desperately tried to regain it… then we had to watch how his brain activity slowly stopped from the lack of oxygen. Daniela left our team that day, she said that she couldn't take watching more of us die."

Phoebe said: "I think I would have done the same."

Sarah replied: "I don't blame her. Anyways, the rest of us kept going, we had to, we knew that we were close. Over the remainder of the year we discovered that the software still had its bugs. I noticed that when I woke up one morning and every time something touched the back of my hand I got a strong taste of mustard in my mouth. It took us some time to track down those bugs and I'm sure over the duration all of us suffered their fair share of brain damage. It was Harald's that was permanent. You probably saw him earlier, almost his entire body is paralyzed, everything except his head and right arm. He also lost the ability to speak, he communicates with everyone else in text."

Phoebe asked: "So, in the end you succeeded in making the interface, why keep it secret?"

Sarah explained: "We knew that the software was free of dangerous bugs as far as we had tested but there could always be something that slipped through, we needed to be absolutely sure. It was our sponsor Peter who suggested a way of testing our software. We should use the software to simulate an environment and let people from all over the world access it, the software was safe enough at that point, with another layer of abstraction any critical errors would only lead to disconnects instead of deaths. In the end we came to the conclusion that the video game Minecraft would be best suited. We went around the internet and started recruiting people, they were told exactly what they were in for. Peter was one of the first people to join. Now, he also wanted to see how much anatomical differences the human brain could tolerate and still be able to control a body. Peter volunteered for this and in short, we changed his body in the simulated world into a tall, scaled superhuman with red eyes and claws."

"Interesting…" Phoebe remarked.

Sarah said: "We had also known that Peter had dealt with an emotional trauma a long time ago and was still suffering from it. Usually he didn't let anything show but fairly recently he requested that we would 'fix' this trauma permanently, we managed to do it but we had to make a sacrifice. The fix was to remove most of his more complex emotions or at least weaken them. Apart from that it went quite well."

Phoebe replied: "Wow, that's actually quite creepy, just being able to cut emotions from somebody."

Sarah said: "Anyways, the thing with the server went nicely, a lot of data was being collected and the people on the server enjoyed themselves. That was until a group of very skilled hackers seized control of it. Now the extensive security mechanisms in our software are working against us and we have no way of retaking it. We can't take it offline either because that would mean that everyone logged into the server would lose connection and… I told you already what happens then."

"So that is who you were looking for in our database?" Phoebe asked.

"Yes but it looks like they are really as good as they seem. We tried to identify them ourselves but weren't able to. In the end we were forced to look into your database. Just so you know, we only found your agency because of our software so you should still be completely invisible. Now, just today the hackers tried to blackmail us by keeping people captive in the server, which is why we were driven to attacking your database." Sarah sighed and continued: "They want the software to do who knows what. And they are not getting it. At least for as long as Peter is alive… his presence on the server stops them from taking over. He only has a few days before he dies of dehydration. We would try to help him directly but his whereabouts are unknown."

Phoebe said: "Now that you told me all of that I'm quite sure that all of us will be in big trouble if this Peter dies. I know, I only just met you but I'll try my best to help you. We simply can't afford not listening to you, we saw what your software is capable of."

Sarah seemed relieved: "Thank you, I really appreciate it."

Phoebe left the interrogation room and told Sarah that she would be back soon. She had to talk to the others, this was a very serious threat. Phoebe sighed, she had expected her day to be stressful in a lot of ways but this clearly wasn't one she would have ever thought of.


	46. Chapter 45

The first stop of the tour through the base was the armory, it was located lower in the rock than the living quarters but still above the room with the oven and the golems.

The armory was a huge open hall with neatly organized weapon racks and armor stands. The weapons and armor sets had all kinds of different sizes, from a very small set, which only someone of the size of a child could wear, ranging up to huge sets of armor that presumably were made for Mencur-Besh. Most of the equipment was made from very dark, almost black, steel.

TehLulz asked: "Fire, Aurone had a knife that was made from the same kind of metal as most of the stuff in here. What's up with that?"

Fire answered: "This is a special kind of steel, most just call it dark steel but the closest equivalent to its real name in the demonic language would be something like 'firesteel'. It is made by mixing regular steel with obsidian and blaze powder, then the metal is woven into the right shape."

"Woven?" Ambigious asked.

Fire took a chestplate from an armor stand and handed it to Ambigious, who was surprised that it didn't weigh nearly as much as he had expected, the texture of the armor also felt strange.

Fire explained: "The metal isn't solid, there is a lot of air inside. Firesteel armor combines the advantages of leather armor and plate armor, being lightweight, flexible and highly protective at the same time."

Fire demonstrated this by taking a bow from a weapon rack and shooting a set of armor point blank. The arrow stopped as soon as it hit the metal and then fell down. The spot where the arrow had hit was now dented slightly inwards but straightened itself out within the next few seconds.

Ambigious was impressed: "Wow, some people would give a lot to have something like this in real life."

Fire nodded and led them along further, passing racks with all kinds of weapons on them. They entered another section of the armory, this one was in a separate room and a lot smaller than the first one.

Shadow explained: "This is where we store some of the stranger weapons Fire has created or found."

freeZe pointed at something that looked like a shield with a drill coming out of it, she asked: "What the hell is that?"

Fire smiled: "Exactly what it looks like, a shield with a drill. It's as useless as you think it is." He shrugged. "I was asked to make three of those, the commissioners paid good money. In the end they themselves noticed that it wasn't that good of an idea but a group of crafty enchanters were able to turn one of them into a somewhat decent mining tool."

The rest of the room had similarly strange weapons and pieces of armor in it, Fire walked past and said a few sentences about each one.

"This armor has an intricate system of small pipes and needles inside that supply its wearer with potions automatically. It worked well but it was a pain to maintain, the pipes just kept gumming up all the time."

"This ball of dark orange goo may not seem like much but it was one of the more successful things in this room. It is able to transform itself into any shape its holder wants, the only limitation being its total mass. This was more of an experiment, a very resource intensive experiment, which is why I will never make another one of those."

Fire added: "Unchosen, TehLulz, Ambigious, on the way out you can take a look at some of the weapons, you will choose some of those when the training begins."

After they were done with the armory, Fire and Shadow lead the others into a different room, this one seemed to be a long corridor with a polished stone floor. On one side the walls were lined with tanks that had different liquids of all colors in them with taps underneath, everything was neatly labeled. The other side had drawers with various materials in them.

Unchosen said: "I assume that this is the potion area."

Fire replied: "Yes, actually this is where all of the ingredients are stored. The potion storage is a bit further ahead, come."

As the group came into to the end of the corridor they stood before a tall wooden door which swung open without a sound. Behind the door was a fairly large circular room, the floor, walls and ceiling were made from obsidian and all around the walls were different devices. The room seemed to be the laboratory where Fire made his potions. Three more doors led out of the room.

Fire explained: "The potion storage is behind those doors. The first one is where beneficial potions are stored, the second one is storage for poisons and the third one is where I put potions that don't really fit into the other two categories. For example there is a potion that turns into a sentient slime when spilled. It's a pet of sorts but its main function lies in testing liquids for harmful substances, you just put one drop into the slime and if it turns red you know you shouldn't drink whatever you tested."

Unchosen replied: "So, this is where I will learn to brew potions?"

Fire nodded.

After leaving the potion area Fire and Shadow showed the others different parts of the base like the enchanting area or the smithy.

The last room they went to was a simple, fairly small room with a wooden floor, the walls lacked the usual engravings, it was in general much simpler than the rest of the base.

"Seems underwhelming." Ambigious noted.

Shadow said: "Don't let the first look deceive you, this is probably the room that contains the most magic in the entire base, just watch."

Before Ambigious could complain about more magic, the entire room seemed to expand. The door behind them disappeared, the walls and ceiling seemed to fade out into blackness, the wooden floor turned into grass, trees and rocks grew out of the ground, lastly the blackness around them turned into a blue sky with some clouds in it. They were suddenly standing in the middle of a forest.

Before anyone could properly react to the sudden scenery change, they saw a group of five armored, mounted warriors charge at them from between the trees.

Unchosen tried to evade the lance that was pointed directly at him but he was too slow. Just when he expected an impact, the lance went right through him and its owner followed. A few moments later the warriors and their horses disappeared into smoke. They were just incorporeal projections.

Ambigious, freeZe, TehLulz and Unchosen couldn't do anything but stand there with open mouths.

"Okay, that is really impressive." Ambigious admitted.

Fire said: "You do not want to know how long Shadow worked on infusing magic into this room so that this would be possible. Granted, that was a few thousand years back. This will be where you will have your combat training, this room enables us to train under different circumstances and against realistic enemies, next to the intangible projections you have seen, there are also ones that are corporeal."

"This is awesome." TehLulz replied, the others agreed.

The room shrunk down to its original size and shape, Fire and Shadow turned to leave.

Unchosen wanted to know: "I still have one question, how will we learn all of those combat and crafting techniques in this little time? I once read that it takes years to master sword fighting."

Fire smiled and answered: "By doing just that, reading." He got some confused looks. "The books in the library are no different to issues you would buy anywhere else on the server. In content that is, the books themselves are indeed different. The books in the library are enchanted so that the reader learns what the book is about just by reading it attentively."

Shadow added: "This can sometimes lead to unexpected effects, right freeZe? I hope you liked Thornhook's book, did you reach the section about ghouls?"

freeZe replied: "Yes I did." She shuddered at the memories.

Fire said: "It's getting late. Time to eat something."

The others wondered how Fire knew it was getting "late" since they were underground but they all agreed on the second part of his statement. Hungrily they followed Fire into the lounge.


	47. Chapter 46

A few days had passed since the tour through the base. Unchosen and Ambigious were walking down a corridor towards the training room. Unchosen couldn't really tell how much time had passed since there weren't any clocks in the base and without any direct view of the sky he could only guess how long it had really been. After the tour he and the others had slept a total of four times but he knew that the human body followed a different rhythm when there was no sun serving as a natural clock.

In the time between then and now they had undergone a basic training in unarmed combat and also in using small weapons like daggers. It had been quite exhausting but it was nowhere near as bad as working in the slave mine. Today would be the first time they would train with the weapons they would be using on their travels.

Unchosen asked: "So, what weapon do you have in mind? I'll probably take a bow with a light melee weapon."

Ambigious replied: "Preferably some heavy weapon that packs a punch, maybe an axe or a great sword."

Unchosen chuckled, he had expected nothing different from his friend.

He then said: "TehLulz said that he would go to the training room a bit earlier to talk about something with Fire. He should be there already."

Ambigious nodded and said: "freeZe has her first magic lesson today as well, she wouldn't stop talking about it yesterday. Shadow seems to be a good teacher from what I have seen in the basic training, she is Fire's sister after all so that should be expected. But dude, there is something about her…"

Unchosen raised an eyebrow: "Hmm?"

Ambigious said: "I really don't know, she sometimes talks down on you but in a subtle way. There is more to her than that, she is giving me some creepy vibes, like she's hiding something."

His friend couldn't help but smile, he asked: "Sure that is creepy you're feeling?"

Ambigious was slightly caught off guard: "What? You mean I have a thing for her? Nah. And even if I did, Fire's advice is still strong in my head. You know, the one where he said that I should be careful what I say around her. I'm starting to think that he really said that for my safety and not hers."

Before Unchosen could reply they had arrived at the door to the training room. When he opened it, he saw that it had taken the shape of a fairly expansive room, the walls and the floor made from what looked to be marble. There were weapon racks lined up along a wall. In the middle of the room stood Fire, next to him was TehLulz. Both raised their hand in a greeting.

"Morning." Fire shouted.

They also greeted Fire and TehLulz and then walked over to them.

Fire explained: "As you can see, there are some weapons you can choose from. You can try out different ones but be careful, those are regular sharpened weapons. Don't cut yourself."

After that Fire made a few gestures with his hand and a couple of figures appeared in the middle of the room. They looked like mannequins but their bodies were translucent and blue. Vital organs and blood vessels were visible through their skin in red, bones were a darker shade of blue.

Fire said: "Those are the projections you will be training with for today. They are exactly as durable as an average unarmored human. After you 'kill' them new ones will appear. I will demonstrate it for you."

Fire walked over to a weapon rack and took a halberd, to his friends it seemed enormous but due to Fire's size it was perfect for him. He then proceeded to cut down the projections with his weapon. Unchosen was familiar with Fire's strength and speed but what he honestly hadn't expected was the way Fire fought here. Fire's movements were fast, simple and every motion Fire made had a purpose, there was an undeniable elegance about his style. First Fire beheaded one of the projections with the axe blade of his halberd and then fluently transitioned into impaling another one with the spear tip. This dance of death continued until no more projections were left standing. As soon as Fire put down his weapon onto the rack, a new set of projections appeared.

Unchosen noticed that something had changed about Fire, there was a red glow coming from between his scales, he asked: "Fire, why are you glowing?"

Fire explained: "Normally our internal body temperature is about double that of humans. If it rises above a certain threshold, our metabolism changes to use a chemical reaction that produces a lot of energy and heat but is less efficient, this is good for combat situations. When our body temperature drops below another threshold a different reaction takes place, which is slower but more efficient. This allows us to spend extended periods of time in environments like water, which is important since we are too heavy to swim."

Unchosen replied: "Why didn't you use that in the quarry or on our journey?"

"To access the more exotic abilities of my body I need drandinian Heavybrew in my system, the food in the quarry wasn't nutritious enough for me to metabolize any meaningful amount. I wasn't off that badly but a malnourished Mencur-Besh is a sad sight to behold."

Fire gestured for them to choose a weapon. Unchosen proceeded to walk over to the weapon rack and take a sword.

Fire commented: "A one handed longsword? Good choice. But I'll tell you right now that you will not be using a single type of weapon only. While swords are effective against unarmored opponents they do next to nothing against metal armor, which is where axes, hammers and maces are effective."

Ambigious took a look at the weapon rack and then picked out a fairly long two-handed sword, TehLulz decided to use a double-bladed battle axe.

Each of them positioned themselves in front of one of the projections, Unchosen lifted his sword to strike but then stopped.

"It does feel kind of strange to attack this projection, it is almost like a human. Very different from the things we were up against so far." He said.

Fire replied: "You will inevitably have to kill people too, better get used to it now than hesitate in battle and lose your life to some thug."

Unchosen shivered at what his friend had just said, it sounded cruel but he knew that it was true. Again he lifted his sword, this time he struck, going for a diagonal cut. The dark blade cut across the projection's chest, leaving a deep, red glowing wound. Ambigious went for a similar attack but despite being larger, his sword seemed to bounce off the projection, only leaving minimal cuts and pushing it back.

"What the hell was that?" He cried out in confusion.

Fire explained: "You need to align the edge of your sword with the direction of your strike, otherwise that will happen. Using a sword takes more than just swinging in the general direction of your opponent."

Ambigious struck a few more times in rapid succession, only one of those strikes left a deep wound. Frustrated he took a step back and then thrust his sword through the ribcage of the projection.

He said: "Well, that works too."

It was TehLulz' turn to try out his weapon. The axe was a lot more unwieldy than even the stone swords he had used in their travels. A lot of the weight was in the tip so it took considerably more strength to swing it. He assumed that it all was a matter of practice. He took the handle of his axe in both hands and struck the projection's chest. Bones shattered under the force of the impact and a sizable wound was left behind.

Fire said: "Quite nicely done, all of you. I can't expect you to be experts in this amount of time. I now suggest that you try all manner of different weapons to find out which one suits you best. As you will be wearing full sets of armor, you can choose any weapon you like since you don't really need a shield when you have armor. Also try some of the daggers, it is always handy to have one or two of those on you if your opponent gets close. Let me show you."

Fire picked up his halberd again, he also attached a longsword and a dagger to his belt. A projection in chain armor appeared on the other side of the room, it was holding a one handed sword and a shield and it was as tall as Fire. Fire approached it and the projection attacked him. It was clear that Fire wasn't using his full combat capabilities, he wanted to demonstrate something after all.

The projection quickly ran past Fire's halberd, making it hard for him to use it effectively. He dropped it and instead took the sword from his belt, using it to parry some incoming strikes. Fire's own strikes were effectively blocked by the projection's shield. The projection used this to move in even closer, now close enough to Fire where even his sword was ineffective. The projection lifted its shield and went for a center of mass stab against Fire. Fire used his dagger to parry the attack and now he stepped into the projection's guard and stabbed it in the throat with the dagger. The projection immediately dematerialized.

Fire said: "I hope you understand what I meant."

Ambigious replied: "Makes total sense. Different weapons for different ranges and as emergency plans."

Fire nodded and summoned a few more projections wearing different kinds of armor, this time they had regular human size and stood completely still. Unchosen figured that those would be for testing weapons against armor.

They spent a few hours trying out weapons and getting better and better at cutting up projections. Unchosen ended up settling with a sword and a mace for backup as well as a dagger. Ambigious had quickly changed over to using exclusively maces since he was getting frustrated with the edge alignment of swords. TehLulz had chosen a slightly smaller version of axe he had begun with.

At the end of the training they were all covered in sweat and completely exhausted.

Ambigious noted: "I guess freeZe has the less demanding lesson. I wonder how she is doing."


	48. Chapter 47

freeZe was walking down a corridor she had never seen before, she was on her way to her first magic lesson. She had dressed appropriately, wearing the blue and black robe she had picked up from the skeletal mage. Next to her walked Shadow, as per usual dressed in her own black robe.

freeZe asked: "Where exactly are we going?"

Shadow replied: "To my summoning chamber. Fire is training the others in the other room, it's the next best thing we have, it is extensively shielded against stray magic." She then asked: "By the way, where did you get this robe? It seems familiar."

"I got it off the skeletal mage in the Graveyard of the Forest that wounded Fire."

"Oh, so that is what became of poor Ganur. He was one of my students when I worked at the University of Magic in Rockhaven. Always wanted to meet Oalrhm… it seems like they got off on the wrong foot."

freeZe wondered: "What's with all of those names? Aurone, Runa, Andras, Ganur… are those traditional names here?"

"Yes, in a way. People born here, so NPCs, are named by their parents. Players often choose an alias for themselves that fits in, real world names or shortened ingame names aren't unusual either though. Here on the server we also follow the principle of earning your second name, which is where Andras Thornhook got his second name, he is an excellent artefact hunter but as you might expect, that is not without dangers. After losing his right hand he installed a hook in its place, it didn't hinder him in the slightest, some even say that he got better after the incident."

Just after Shadow had finished talking they had arrived at the door to the summoning chamber. Shadow signaled freeZe to go in first. After hesitating she pushed open the pitch black wooden door. freeZe had expected the smell of incense to hit her but instead there was nothing, no smell, no sound, only the dim light of candles. After her eyes had adjusted to the darkness she could see that there was already someone standing in the room… it was Shadow. freeZe quickly turned around to see if she had teleported into the room but no, there were two Shadows.

"What the hell?" freeZe asked.

The Shadow standing in the room just smiled, the other one walked past freeZe and stood next to the first one.

In unison they said: "Projections, freeZe."

After that the Shadow that had accompanied freeZe vanished without a trace.

freeZe was fascinated: "Wow, will I learn how to do that too?"

"Probably not." Shadow answered bluntly.

freeZe stared at her for a couple of seconds, then Shadow added: "That is because your magical elements aren't the ones needed to create projections. Fire said that he gave you a brief rundown of how the magical elements work but that was just a very superficial overview. Make yourself comfortable."

With those words Shadow sat down on the carpet. freeZe closed the door behind herself and then sat down. The carpet was quite soft and very nice to sit on. She was sitting on the opposite side of the summoning circle that was illuminated by the candles, everything else around her was black and the only thing she could properly see of Shadow were her white hair and her red, glowing eyes.

Shadow began: "Fire probably told you about the seven elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Life, Ender and Wither. They are all 'flavors' of the same magical energy. While Fire and Air magic do pretty much what you would expect them to, Water and Earth magic don't. Their names can be quite deceptive to be honest, whoever named them didn't think too much about more descriptive names and just went with the four elements theme. Now, Water magic and Earth magic are quite similar, they are both used to change the properties of things. While Water magic is more focused on the environment, Earth magic focuses on the caster. Ender magic applies the laws of physics according to the caster's will, so an Ender mage is capable of, for example, making things float or animating golems. Summoning demons or teleporting is also in the domain of Ender magic. Life and Wither are exact opposites and counteract each other. While Life is used to heal, Wither is used to harm or perform necromancy. Earth and Water can be used to heal as well but those types of healing often require more concentration. Technically Ender magic can do everything the other elements can do as well, although it is much more difficult to the point of being impractical."

freeZe asked: "What about Void?"

"Right, Void. In practice Void is more or less irrelevant. It is to Ender what Wither is to Life, an opposing force. The only difference here is that because of its very nature unbound Void energy it destroys anything it comes in contact with. It is hard to even create Void magic since it is just neutralized upon coming into existence and even if a large amount of Void magic was created, it is impossible to control except in very specific circumstances. If you wander around for a while you may notice large, perfectly spherical holes in the landscape, which is what happens when Void magic is created and not controlled."

"Alright, I get it. Void. Don't touch that."

"Exactly. Now to you."

freeZe was a bit surprised by suddenly being in the focus, she asked: "What?"

Shadow said: "As far as Fire has told me you have large quantities of life force at your disposal, the energy from the Blaze Core confirmed this. That and the magical pulse I felt a day before your arrival, I assume that that was you evaporating that slime."

freeZe awkwardly looked away from Shadow, she remembered her total loss of control and absolute helplessness after her life force had taken control.

"From what I have heard your main elements seem to be Fire and Air. While your combination is phenomenal in combat. Outside of it, it can become somewhat of a burden. Both of those elements tend to be quite unstable and their users tend to use them, mostly involuntarily, when affected by strong emotions, especially the Fire element is prone to this. Some people don't like us mages in general but for pyromancers this is doubly so. Let me give you an example, there is a joke…"

freeZe interrupted: "Seriously, there are jokes about pyromancers?"

Shadow laughed. "Oh, you would be surprised how many mage, alchemist or enchanter jokes there are, people tend to ridicule things they can't understand and trust me, jokes aren't where it stops. However there aren't any Mencur-Besh jokes I am aware of… strange, isn't it? Anyways the joke goes like this: 'A recently married pyromancer couple rents a room in a tavern for a night, how does the room look the day after?' The correct reply would be: 'What room in what tavern?' You get the gist. I just want you to be aware of this beforehand so that you can actually keep your magic in check before you accidentally turn your brother into charcoal. Fortunately people aren't this hostile to mages everywhere, it's mostly outside of big cities, it's a bad idea to offend the people you need."

freeZe was caught between smiling at the joke and thinking about what might happen to her, she asked: "Why is that?"

"In the beginning of your training you will work on fusing your consciousness with your life force, that way you gain control over your magic instead of it being something that awakens in certain situations. Of course, this will affect you in some way, for some it is a radical change of personality and for some others it is barely noticeable. In general though, Fire is still the most unstable element and is the most prone to accidental use, Air follows right after. I hope you are ready for that."

freeZe thought for a moment, then said: "Yes, I am ready. Probably. It is better than having my life force just sitting there having its own will."

Shadow rose up in one fluent movement, she said: "Let's start then."

freeZe stood up as well. Shadow reached into a pocked of her robes and pulled out a small flask with a bright blue liquid in it, she handed it to freeZe.

"This potion will forcibly put your life force into control. Drink it. When you feel yourself losing control, try to fight it with all of your willpower, try to get back into control and command your magic yourself. Don't worry about me or this room, everything in the room is protected and I will be able to defend myself against anything your life force may throw at me."

All of a sudden freeZe wasn't so sure if she was in fact ready, her hands were shaking as she uncorked the flask. Before finally bringing herself to drink the blue liquid she took a deep breath. As it ran down her throat she wasn't exactly able to identify what it felt like, it wasn't cold or hot, it was a sensation unknown to her. Suddenly freeZe felt herself losing control over her limbs and then finally over the rest of her body, she felt like she would fall over but she stood perfectly still. No feeling got through to her anymore, she could only see like through the eyes of a stranger. Then she felt something, a very distant feeling, it was exactly what she had felt in the Graveyard or in the swamp. She tried to suppress it but her efforts had no effect. She saw her right arm rise up but she couldn't feel it. The flask dropped from her grasp, its impact muffled by the carpet. She saw how her head turned around to inspect the surroundings, then she heard her own voice, it was distorted and it seemed like the one speaking only barely knew the words.

It said: "What… this?"

She saw how her hands were now being moved more aggressively, pointing towards Shadow whose facial expression hadn't changed in the slightest. Small sparks started flying from her palms, rising up into the air. She suddenly felt how energy started flowing through her. She clung to this feeling, trying to control the flow, still to no avail. The sparks quickly became small flames, when they had grown a little bigger, she saw her palms being pointed at Shadow. A jet of flame shot from them, however it seemed to be distorted by something just before it reached Shadow, bending the flames around her.

freeZe heard Shadow calmly say: "Come on, fight it."

The flames got stronger, so did the energy flow. freeZe still felt absolutely powerless. Suddenly the flames stopped, her hands were now at her sides. Just as freeZe was about to wonder what was happening a deafening explosion originated from her body, only that it wasn't deafening to her, it was more of a muffled bang. freeZe was in the center of an ongoing nova of red flames, she couldn't see any of the room.

* * *

It was now five minutes after she had drank the potion, she was starting to panic, even when she killed the skeletal mage it had been over sooner. She needed to do something, anything.

It was easier said than done, she felt like she was an insect encased in amber, no room for movement and no weak point that could be used as leverage. The flames still seemed to have no end, they had changed from red to bright white. All of a sudden freeZe felt how the energy flow broke in for a moment, a crack in the amber prison that was her own mind, her life force was getting weaker.

freeZe used this gap, she mentally clawed her nails into it to enlarge it, she could feel the feeling in her skin returning, her hearing getting clearer. She thought back to when she held the Blaze Core, now she did the exact same thing to limit the energy flow. The flames started turning red again and became less dense and continued to lose energy. Just before they were gone completely, freeZe suddenly snapped back into control. She felt an intense heat upon her skin and closed her eyes to protect them from the flames that were still coming from her body. The heat started turning into pain, just when she thought that it became unbearable, the flames stopped. The pain remained.

When she opened her eyes she was lying on the soft carpet, Shadow was leaning over her with a smile on her face.

"You did it." She said.

freeZe sat up, then she noticed that she had burns all over her skin, not as bad ones as the ones she had gotten in the swamp but they still hurt like hell. Her hair also hadn't taken kindly to the flames. At least her robe had remained completely undamaged. With each moment the pain subsided more.

With a raspy voice freeZe said: "Normally it doesn't stop hurting that quickly."

Shadow explained: "Now that you have established a connection to your life force, your body will heal much more quickly than normally. If you want I can heal you completely so that you don't keep scars."

freeZe thought for a moment, then replied: "No, I don't mind the scars. They will remind me of this struggle. I also think I'll also be burned more often."

Shadow looked at freeZe, then she started laughing: "Now, you aren't the first to say that. You are already starting to think like a pyromancer."


	49. Chapter 48

Fire was walking alongside his friends as they returned to the hub area, he was highly satisfied with the progress they had made. They really were fast learners, especially TehLulz was already quite adept at handling the weapons he chose. Ambigious by far was the one with the least refined technique but he compensated for it with raw speed and strength. In that regard he was the opposite of Unchosen who was weaker but more precise, surgical almost. With more training all of them would make quite formidable warriors, Fire was sure of it.

What did concern him however were the faint energy pulses he had felt about halfway through the training, which he assumed to come from Shadow's summoning chamber. Their cause must have been an incredibly strong release of magical energy, otherwise nothing would have escaped the heavily shielded room.

Fire thought back to when freeZe had used the blaze core in their mountain shelter, still cursing his carelessness for letting her use the core in the first place. Then again, if she hadn't discovered her magical potential there, the skeletal mage would have been more of a problem than it already had been. It was one of those decisions where it was very hard to judge if it was right or wrong and sadly a lot of the decisions he had made and would have to make were of this nature. He supposed that by the end of their quest he would get the clarity he wanted.

Fire's thought process was interrupted by TehLulz speaking: "That last one was especially brutal Ambigious, you just caved that thing's head in."

Audibly proud, Ambigious replied: "I do try."

The three of them laughed, then they turned to Fire. Ambigious asked: "So, what do we do now?"

Fire replied: "Judging by how you look and smell I suggest taking a bath. And remember: Don't touch the black soap."

Ambigious said: "Yeah, yeah. Lesson learned."

They exited the stone tunnel they were in, went through the hub and then walked towards the living quarters through the much more homely wooden corridor. To their surprise they saw Shadow and freeZe sitting at the table in the lobby and talking.

Shadow was wearing her usual robe but freeZe had changed into a very casual outfit consisting of black pants and a short blue shirt. However, on second look, she didn't look all too good. Her hair was singed and what was visible of her skin was covered in scar tissue, which surprisingly had the same pitch black color as her usual skin but nonetheless looked terrible.

As soon as Ambigious spotted this, he rushed over to freeZe and asked: "What happened? Are you okay?"

freeZe smiled and said: "I am okay, just don't touch it. As for what happened… I set an entire room on fire. For ten minutes straight."

Before Ambigious could say anything Shadow interjected: "freeZe needs to learn how to control her magic, to teach her that I brought out her life force using a potion and she had to fight her way back into control. While her life force was in control, her body was shielded from the heat, mages are usually immune to their own spells unless they are inexperienced. That explains why she got burned, after she got back into control there was still a lot of heat lingering in the room and her life force wasn't shielding her body anymore."

Ambigious was probably about to make a snappy comment about magic but was silenced by a look from his sister. Instead he sat down on a chair next to her and sighed.

freeZe asked: "So, what have you guys been up to?"

Unchosen explained: "We have been training with melee weapons. Fire summoned projections and we killed them."

TehLulz didn't sit down and instead walked towards the stairs, he said: "I don't know about you but I'll take a long, relaxing bath now."

The others silently agreed and followed him, only Fire and Shadow were left behind.

"So, how are the prospects for her?" Fire asked.

His sister replied: "As you know she has an affinity for Fire and Air. I haven't tested other elements yet but I don't think that there will be anything major. Average mages usually don't have more than two. Maybe there will be some minor affinity towards any of the other elements, that way she could use her magic for things that don't involve destruction."

Fire nodded: "How about her further training? Those scars look pretty bad."

Shadow smirked and answered: "It was actually her own decision to keep them. It shouldn't surprise me, really. Most pyromancers run around with completely scarred skin, the one advantage it has is that it is quite fireproof."

"Tell me about it, you would be surprised how many hair-growth potions are sold in the Mencur-Besh potion shop in Redwater, most of them to pyromancers."

Shadow chuckled at that thought, she said: "How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing fine, but even if I wanted to feel nervous, I can't. I still don't know if it is the right approach I'm taking. At this point it's too early to say anything. Once we get the first few artefacts we'll see how everything pans out."

"I talked to a few of my friends in Rockhaven via demon, double checked some laws. Our friends won't have trouble getting in, we two are already citizens, obviously. Luckily the Eye-and-Claws have a lot of power in Rockhaven so we came to an agreement quickly."

Fire remembered something: "There are also those rumors about an enigmatic group in Rockhaven plotting to dethrone the king. I don't know if that is relevant to us though."

"Right, I remember you telling me shortly before your capture. Do we really have no idea on who it is?"

Fire shook his head: "No clue. That's what puzzles me the most about this whole affair in Rockhaven. None of the powerful people should have any reason to want a new king, even the Mage Guild is quite satisfied with him."

Shadow sighed. "I'll have to look into it when we arrive, I have my ways of finding troublemakers. But right now the preparations for the journey have top priority."

A few minutes later freeZe came down the stairs, visibly having trouble moving due to the pain her fresh scars caused her.

She groaned: "Okay, keeping the scars was a mistake. Can you heal me Shadow?"

Shadow threw her brother an amused look before standing up. She closed her eyes to focus and raised her arms towards freeZe. As she prepared to cast her spell, white runes started glowing all over what little of Shadow's skin was visible. A moment later freeZe's scars started slowly turning into normal skin again and her hair was restored to its original condition.

freeZe touched the skin of her arms, she said: "That felt… interesting. But really, thank you. I better work on not getting burned in the future."

Shadow looked a little exhausted, she explained: "This spell is very energy intensive, healing fresh wounds is just a matter of speeding up natural regeneration and making sure that scars don't form… but healing already formed scars is more complicated. Fortunately there is enough ambient energy in the base that I don't really have to worry about running dry, not that it would have been a problem normally but I am still recovering from casting the barrier to protect myself from your flames."

freeZe nodded in acknowledgement and then asked: "Interesting. By the way, what's up with those runes?"

"I did mention a few times that I 'ascended', yes? That is the reason I have those runes on my skin." Shadow said, making her runes glow demonstratively. "When I joined the server and discovered my talent for magic I was purely an Ender mage, this is also why I know so many demons, I have been summoning them from the start. After around a thousand years, the understanding of magic here was great enough that so powerful and thus costly spells were theorized that even the most powerful mages couldn't cast them in practice. Casting spells as a group is always an option but it is difficult and could end in disaster at a moment's notice. So that is why mages from all over the world worked on a way to augment the magical capabilities of an individual. The Mencur-Besh were the ones who delivered the solution, they have a huge interest in research and the acquisition of knowledge."

freeZe asked: "So you were the first one to ascend?"

Shadow shook her head: "The only one in fact. I was the only one where it worked. As for those before me… some survived, some didn't. The procedure itself required the cooperation of all three supernatural crafts, that being magic, enchanting and alchemy, which on its own was a challenge. An alchemist, in this case Fire, brewed a potion that allowed my body to accept the magic that would be used in the ritual. After drinking it, the runes would have to be carved into my skin using a special knife made from enchanted silver, which is hard to make since silver naturally repels all magic. Let me tell you, it was a very painful process but nothing compared to the last part. The runes carved into my skin were filled with actual enchantment runes. Then seven mages, each a master of their own element, channeled their magic into me."

freeZe involuntarily rubbed her skin, remembering the pain from being burned.

Seeing her motion Shadow said: "Yes, it was more painful than that. After the procedure everyone just had to wait and see. When I woke up my skin had turned black, my hair white and my eyes red, which was presumably because the potion required some Mencur-Besh blood, in this case Fire's, which explains the red eyes. That and I had a living shadow. Besides my appearance being different, I also felt different, I felt free. There was immense power within me but I knew better than to test it out on the spot. I was right in not doing so, I had to re-learn everything I knew about using magic but in the end I had become what so many wished to be, a master of all magic."

Fire got up and said: "I would love to stay and talk with you two but I'm going to have to sleep now, I stayed up a long time preparing for the training."

"Night… or whatever time we have." freeZe said.

Fire replied: "Night."

freeZe turned to Shadow again and said: "So, there are no other ascended mages?"

Shadow answered: "No, there were attempts before and after me but they all failed, I imagine there is an underlying reason for it. It could have been any number of things really, there is no way to tell for sure."

freeZe said: "Hmm… I know I should sleep right now but I am not tired at all. Ever since the training a passion has been burning inside of me, in more ways than one. I want to learn more about magic!"

Shadow smiled: "Then I suggest that we go to the library together, there are plenty of books there. Come, I'll show you."

With that both got up and made their way out of the lobby, walking towards the library, still talking.


	50. Chapter 49

Jack had made a decision, he would go to Rockhaven. From what he knew a very powerful artefact was locked away inside of that city, some kind of axe. He didn't think he would be able to get that axe himself but he was fairly certain that Fire would show up in Rockhaven eventually, that axe was just too perfect of an artefact.

Jack left early in the morning after ensuring that he had enough supplies to make it a long way. Judging by the map, the road from Redwater to Rockhaven was not a very direct path and he also saw why. The direct route went through a snow biome and a strange, fairly circular valley surrounded by jagged mountains that all roads seemed to avoid by a large margin. He would later decide if he wanted to take the long road or the "fun path" since the first bit of the road ran along the direct route.

As Jack left Redwater, he ran into Nathaniel again and was surprised and a bit suspicious that he too was on his way to Rockhaven. They promptly decided to travel together, they both agreed that going alone was risky, especially in the lawless wilderness.

After walking for a bit Nathaniel asked: "Why do you want to go to Rockhaven?"

Jack answered: "I have been tasked with delivering a message to a Mencur-Besh called Fire. No idea who my client actually is, the pay is good though."

Nathaniel said: "Hmm… a message for a Mencur-Besh, I see. No idea why anyone would contract someone like us for it though, probably because we get around and nobody suspects a thing."

Jack nodded: "Most likely. Finding this Fire won't be easy though, from what I have heard some of them have identical names… and they all look pretty much the same."

"True. Nobody really knows a whole lot about them. You can only see one running a shop here and there, sometimes I meet one of them on my travels. They are interesting to talk to, if you get the opportunity that is. But I wouldn't want to face any of them in battle. Have you seen how they fight? I heard some of them are mercenaries as well, never met one of those though."

Jack replied: "I honestly didn't know about them until I got this contract, I mostly did jobs in the Deepsand desert and the surrounding areas. Then that slave mine showed up."

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow: "Didn't know there was one there. Who's running it?"

"Don't know. But they seem awfully good at keeping everybody in check. They are mining the rock of that old volcano in the middle of the desert and sell the resources."

"I assume that is why you left."

"Yes, the risk of being enslaved does outweigh the fact that everyone suddenly has diamonds to pay me with."

It had been Q's idea to not only capture new players but to also take in some of the surrounding population to make the whole slave mine thing more believable and less suspicious. It seemed like nobody on the server had noticed that they were actually hackers, Fire being the only one knowing what was going on. He and the people he escaped with presumably. And that one guy who showed up to save Fire in the arena. And a lot of the people in the arena who had listened to what Fire had said. And the people who had noticed the broadcast message, though he knew that most players didn't have their chat enabled. Jack realized that more people knew about them than he would have liked.

Jack changed topic: "So, have you ever been to Rockhaven before?"

Nathaniel replied: "Yes, once. It was before the current king's election, I was hired to act as a guard during the festivities after the election. Normally they don't bring in outsiders or interact much, except through trade of course. It seems though that there was some unrest during that period and the city guard was concerned that something would happen. When you look at Rockhaven from the inside it is really hard to believe that 'unrest' is even part of the vocabulary there. The streets are wide and paved with… no idea what exactly it is but it looks really good. There are all kinds of people walking around in clothes of… again, no idea what it's called. After I was relieved of my duty I was free to stay for another two days before having to leave. I spent hours walking through the streets and visited every shop I thought was interesting. I'll tell you, the things you can buy there! Weapons made from diamonds. Not the cheap ones where you just slap two gems onto a stick and it becomes a sword. Those ones were proper weapons, the shop owner demonstrated it to me by slicing straight through a chunk of rock. They were expensive as all hell though."

Jack nodded: "Seems like it really is as unbelievable as I've been told. How did you get there the last time?"

"I came from Redwater too, this here is my home turf. I took a shortcut through the snow and then followed the road again. Turns out that I saved a fair bit of time that way, a caravan driver that departed at the same time as me arrived weeks later. That and it is better than being ambushed, like you said, bandits are everywhere when you travel on your own."

Jack stopped and unfolded his map, then pointed at the strange round valley.

He asked: "What's this?"

Nathaniel remarked: "Nice map." He continued: "That's the Witch's Cauldron. Some mage screwed up and now there is magic going wild inside of that valley. I heard that the mountains formed because of that too. In short, don't go there."

Jack said: "Interesting. So we will follow the road until we hit the snow, then go through?"

"Yes. But really, where did you get that map?"

"It was part of what my latest client gave me. I was told to consider it as a bit of an upfront payment." It was surprising for Jack how close to the truth his lie was.

"I can understand that, you rarely come across a map like that. Anyways, the reason why I'm travelling to Rockhaven is not because I want to go to the town itself but to a nearby other town, Rockhaven Port. It started off as a trading post for Rockhaven because Rockhaven didn't have sea access. Due to its flourishing economy it eventually became independent. Naturally pirates are a problem on the sea trade routes so I can imagine that capable fighters are always welcome on trade ships. And if I don't find work on a ship, there is still plenty of demand for mercenaries, just like everywhere else. Maybe I'll even go to one of the pirate towns overseas and see what kind of trouble I can get into there."

Jack looked at his map again and indeed, just a few kilometers away from Rockhaven was a city labelled "Rockhaven Port", it wasn't quite as big or fortified as Rockhaven but it was easy to see why it flourished, it was located in a large bay that would be safe from even the wildest storms.

Jack put away his map and they started walking again. They were walking along the cobbled road silently but not after long it turned into a wide path of dirt, hardened by the feet of countless travelers. The path followed the stream of Redwater through the dense woods. Branches covered the path entirely, shielding them from the sun.

Jack thought about his plans for when he would arrive in Rockhaven, hopefully he wouldn't miss Fire entirely. He could set up camp at one of the roads near the city and just wait, maybe under the guise of a hunter, that way he could also ask people who were leaving Rockhaven on what was going on inside.

The world on the server was really a whole lot more complex than he had originally thought but he wasn't surprised, it had plenty of time to develop. Jack shuddered involuntarily, another world, simulated by a computer program… a couple of weeks earlier he would just have laughed off the idea but now that he had experienced it firsthand he was both impressed and intimidated by the thought that technology could do something like this.

Q had recruited him and the others over the internet, unsurprisingly. Most of the others were no big deal. Q and Jack himself were the only big fish involved in the operation. Them and Jack's friend Alice, who had been the one who had sold Q the information about the server in the first place, after looking at her past exploits Q had decided to recruit her along with Jack. Although Jack often disagreed with Alice's way of going about things, he couldn't deny that she was a valuable member. She was also his way out of his quest for finding Fire, he had arranged a meeting with her in the general area around Rockhaven so she could pick him up should anything go wrong. Assuming that nothing went wrong on the way there.

Jack shrugged the thought off and continued walking down the dirt path.


	51. Chapter 50

Unchosen and Fire were standing in the circular obsidian room that was Fire's potion lab, today would be Unchosen's first brewing lesson. Fire had set up a schedule for Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen himself. Unchosen still wasn't sure what he would call the "days" passing in Fire's base, "sleep cycle" seemed the most fitting, in the end he decided to simply refer to them as days and be done with it. The schedule was that each day someone else would come with Fire to train in their specialized field, the others were encouraged to go to the library or train in combat, freeZe had lessons every second day. Ambigious and TehLulz had told Unchosen that they would be sparring in the training room until he was done.

Fire began his lesson by asking: "You are a doctor in real life if I understand correctly?"

Unchosen nodded. "Technically I started off by studying chemistry but I just somehow ended up in medicine."

"So I assume that I don't have to tell you much about the more basic safety precautions you need to take here but I'll just be on the safe side. Always wear your alchemy clothes when doing any work with potions or ingredients, I'll give you yours shortly. Also, when you mix things together, always make sure to know what exactly you are mixing. Many things don't react at all but some that do aren't very pleasant. Also, before trying out a new potion on yourself, use it on a projection, they react in the same way humans do. This is important because some potions have almost irreversible effects, I do have many antidotes here but by far not every possible one. Also, if you drink the wrong thing you might find yourself going on a fantastical interdimensional journey and I'm not talking about hallucinogens here."

Unchosen replied: "Got it."

Fire said: "Good, now let's give you some clothes to wear."

With those words Fire opened a drawer and took out a white coat and white pants, similar to the clothes he was wearing. In addition he took out a pair of gloves and a face mask.

"Those should fit you. Wear those every time you have a lesson here or do alchemy in general. The face mask protects your eyes and in addition filters out hazardous gasses and particles."

After Unchosen changed into his new clothes they were ready to begin.

Fire explained: "You can keep your gloves and mask off for now, today I'll mostly teach you about the basics and brew a few potions that are safe. In every future lesson the protective gear is a requirement."

Fire then lifted several large books onto the central table of the room. One design was familiar to Unchosen, the book was titled "Fire's Potion Journal Fifth Edition", the others were completely new to him. One had the title "Standard Ingredient List", another one "Extended Ingredient List", several more had similar names, different lists of ingredients or reactions and one book which seemed to contain information about brewing techniques and equipment.

"Those are quite the books there." Unchosen said.

He was no stranger to extensive specialized literature but this was very specialized and there was a whole lot of it.

Fire answered: "A large part of an alchemist's work is documenting what they are doing and reading through other alchemists' documentations. Those documentations are called 'Potion Journals', as you can see, this is one of mine. In it I wrote down different recipes, experiments and other things that could be useful to another alchemist. It has been revised and extended multiple times, replacing old recipes with new, more efficient or easier ones. The old ones are still in there in case someone lacks the ingredients for the new version or needs the older version of a potion for one reason or another. This also means that with each edition the book gets thicker."

Unchosen asked: "Are those published as well?"

Fire said: "They certainly are. Experienced alchemists earn a surprising amount just from the sales of their journals and even the journals of novices are sometimes useful since their lack of experience can lead to accidental discoveries that a more experienced alchemist wouldn't have made. The journals are mostly sold to other alchemists but also to people who aren't alchemists themselves but want to make their own potions. All at their own risk of course."

Fire then said: "It's time for your first potion. It will be a fairly simple one that is safe to brew. This particular potion is plainly known as the 'Novice Potion' because its only real application is to teach how to brew. It doesn't have any special effects, it just tastes like oranges if done right."

Unchosen laughed. "Let's get to it then."

Fire turned a crank and an opening appeared in the middle of the table. Fire also opened a cupboard to get a medium sized, cauldron shaped glass container. He placed the container next to the hole. Then he poured a glowing powder from a pouch into the hole and put the glass container on top and poured in water until it was half-full.

He explained: "The instruments and containers used in alchemy are made from diamond-glass, which is nearly indestructible. I'm using blaze powder to heat the water since it gives off a much more stable temperature than burning fuel. It's basically this world's substitute for a Bunsen burner, only that its acquisition is a bit more difficult."

Unchosen nodded.

Fire continued: "Every potion needs a base, in regular Minecraft the only base available is the one using nether wart, the Awkward Potion, but here we have many more. The quality of the base determines how complex the potion can be and how potent its effects are. Nether warts can be used as a base for almost any potion but more specialized bases often achieve better effects. For this potion we will be using nether warts though since it is only for demonstration."

Following Fire's instructions Unchosen carefully cut some nether warts into small pieces and threw them into the now boiling hot water. The pieces slowly dissolved, losing their red color. The water largely remained unchanged apart from a small difference in how it bubbled.

Next Fire instructed Unchosen to go and find two ingredients in the storage. Unchosen walked out of the laboratory into the storage corridor, he was supposed to look for "dried swamp blossom" and "dungeon moss". The moss was quickly found since Unchosen had seen the label earlier. The blossom did prove to be a little more difficult but since the ingredients were alphabetically sorted it also didn't take him too long. As he looked into the drawer, he recognized them as the round blossoms of the plants he and the others had eaten in the swamp. He returned with each ingredient in a separate bowl.

Fire said: "Nicely done. Now you need to powder the swamp blossom and slowly add it to the base."

Unchosen asked: "Just a question, back in the swamp Aurone said that those blossoms contain a weak poison… paralysis I think. What about that?"

"That's what the dungeon moss is for. It is resilient enough to grow near active mob spawners, most other plants are affected by the strong magical aura of spawners but dungeon moss isn't. Along with this it also is resistant to most poisons. It absorbs them and turns them into something that isn't poisonous anymore, in the case of swamp blossom this results in the orange flavor. It's remarkable that this conversion works even long after the moss has been harvested."

Unchosen said: "Interesting."

Unchosen then used a diamond-glass pestle to turn the dried swamp blossom into a fine powder, then he slowly tilted the bowl while gently stirring the base potion. As the powdered blossom came in contact with the liquid below, it quickly turned green.

Once all of the powder had dissolved, Fire gave more instructions: "Next you must wait for the liquid to cool off, just take the cauldron away from the blaze powder. For this you should wear your gloves, the glass is very hot. By the way, the green color comes from the strong pigments of the blossom, they are also used to create green dye if cactus isn't available or too expensive in the area."

After following Fire's instructions, Unchosen waited for the liquid to cool off. Once cold, Fire told Unchosen to just dump the whole bowl of moss into the potion. As the moss touched the liquid, it dissolved quickly, changing the color of the liquid to a darker green.

Fire announced: "It should be done now."

He then proceeded to use a large pipette to put some of the potion into a vial, then he drank it. Fire gave Unchosen thumbs up and then gave him another vial with the green substance. As Unchosen drank, the expected orange taste filled his mouth and fortunately no numb feeling was in his tongue afterwards.

He laughed. It seemed like he had successfully made a green liquid that tasted like oranges. It was a start for sure.


	52. Chapter 51

TehLulz had been practicing in the training room with Unchosen for a couple of hours. Fire had shown them how they could create projections themselves, it wasn't quite as easy as it was for Fire but they got the hang of it fairly quickly. This time they had used projections that actually fought back, the wounds they inflicted didn't cause any physical harm but they were still painful.

Both had gotten more adept at handling their weapons. TehLulz had discovered that handling his axe was far easier when he just kept it moving all of the time instead of having to accelerate it for every swing. Unchosen had gotten quite good at exploiting gaps in his opponent's guard, for that purpose he had also tried using a rapier but decided that it was too specialized. Unchosen had stayed behind in the training room to practice some more, his sword and mace were significantly less tiring to use than TehLulz' battleaxe.

After taking a bath TehLulz decided that it would be a good idea to go to the library, Fire had instructed them to read about their specific area. Since he hadn't had his enchanting lesson yet he decided that he would read more about weapons and combat.

TehLulz had been in the library before but only briefly. He walked down the corridor leading to the library, as he approached the door it swung open automatically. He needed a moment to adjust to the strong smell of the library. He slowly walked past the tall bookshelves and looked at the labels, he was surprised by the amount of different things there were in there. After some time he had found the section about weapons in one of the shelves on the wall of the second story balcony that went around the entire library. He took a book called "Axes and Axe Fighting", then climbed back down to the ground floor. He knew that there was a reading area in the center of the library so he headed there with the book under his arm.

The reading area consisted of multiple round chairs that looked like spheres with an opening in the front, the insides of the chair were glowing slightly to provide a good light for reading. TehLulz sat down in one such chair and opened his book. Just as he was about to start reading he heard a voice.

"Hey."

He looked up and discovered that there was freeZe sitting in another chair.

He said: "Oh, hey freeZe."

freeZe said: "I see you are also taking Fire's advice?"

"Yeah, Unchosen is still in the training room and Ambigious is still in his smithing lesson with Fire. Have you had your magic lesson already?"

freeZe nodded. "This time Shadow told me to use my magic to create a few sparks in my palm. Those sparks turned out to be a pretty big fireball."

"That's good, right?"

"According to what Shadow said, partially. It shows that I already have good control over my life force but also that I can't restrain the amount of energy I use. We tried a few more things, it turned out that I had little difficulty making a big flame but making it smaller was impossible to me."

"I assume that you need that control to be able to do more complex things, right?"

"Pretty much. Shadow said that this may be because I'm not entirely in tune with my life force right now. I can just activate my magic and tell it what to do but as you saw multiple times, my life force doesn't do careful. With enough training it should get better. Shadow also said that right now we will focus mostly on the Fire element since it is more unstable than Air. Her reasoning is that if I learn to control Fire, Air won't be a problem."

TehLulz asked: "What are you reading there?"

freeZe answered: "A book about the process of becoming a mage. It's a scientific study of sorts, the author observed apprentices of multiple mages. It's quite interesting how the different apprentices develop, especially when they have different magical affinities. My thinking is that if I understand the process and look at others that have been through it I will be able to use some of it for myself."

"Good thought. I'm reading a book about axe fighting for obvious reasons."

freeZe said: "But really, the books in here are amazing… and a bit scary. As Fire said, you absorb the knowledge from the books. While reading it is like I see the four apprentices standing in front of me, training with their master. It is like looking through the author's eyes. It is difficult to tell apart which memories are my own and which ones I got from the book."

TehLulz nodded. "I wonder what my book will be like then."

freeZe said: "Different question. What do you think about this whole situation right now? With us saving the world and everything. I haven't gotten the chance to really talk about it."

"Hmm… I did not expect that question right now. I actually didn't really think about it all that much either, there just has been too much going on. It is really a huge responsibility when you think about it."

freeZe replied: "Yes… to think that a few real life days back we all were just living ordinary lives. We really didn't have much of a choice but I guess that's because we were brain kidnapped by some hackers."

After a short pause TehLulz said: "Thinking about it, nobody ever asked what any of us do in real life. I only really know that Unchosen is a doctor and that only because he mentioned it in the swamp once."

freeZe said: "I am a first semester biology student and Ambigious works at a construction site. We live in a rented apartment together. Our parents don't care much for us and even if they did they wouldn't be able to contribute anything. The only thing that allows me to study is the student allowance I got for excellent marks and the money Ambigious makes."

TehLulz chuckled. "I am in a similar situation, money wise at least, I recently lost my job. I worked as a journalist and field reporter for a small newspaper for a few years but recently the sales went down, it went bankrupt. Now I'm looking for a similar job. A different newspaper seems interested but it's still too soon to say anything."

"Until we get out of here, money won't be a concern. In here at least, Fire seems to have that front covered."

"Yeah, I think nothing that happens out there is a concern until this is finished, one way or another. I guess we should just focus on our task right now."

freeZe said: "You know, I really wonder how it will be travelling through the wilderness here. I recently finished the book about the undead by Andras Thornhook and I'll probably read his other books as well. There is some scary stuff out there, luckily most of it only appears in certain places or is generally very rare."

TehLulz answered: "When our sets of armor and weapons are done we'll be able to defend ourselves. On top of that we have you and your magic. And of course Fire and Shadow will also be there. I'm mostly curious about the people, you know, how the society on the server developed and how it is now. I'm looking forward to Rockhaven."

"Yes, Rockhaven will be quite the experience. From what Shadow told me we will visit several of the interesting places while we are there."

"There really are so many fascinating things here. Now that we aren't slaves anymore or escaping from being slaves, we finally have the opportunity to see all of the things this world has to offer."

"It really is impressive how big this world is, Fire really didn't lie when he said that the possibilities that this software offered were limitless. And it would be a shame if it fell into the wrong hands… I can't go a minute without thinking about our mission, can I?"

TehLulz said: "As said, I think it's better if we don't think about it and just focus. We both have some reading to do."

With those words TehLulz started reading the first pages and immediately was drawn into the book, or was the book drawn into him? At this moment it was irrelevant, all he wanted was to learn how to fight in order to overcome what was ahead.


	53. Chapter 52

Fire was waiting in his smithy, it had been more than a few minutes since the time he and Ambigious had agreed on. In the center of the square room was a pit with burning blaze powder inside. A basin of water was embedded into a wall, evaporating water was constantly refilled from a spout. Various smithing tools were lined up on tool racks along the wall. A wooden door in one wall went back to the rest of the base. On the opposite side was another door, this one was made from firesteel.

The wooden door opened and in came Ambigious.

Fire said: "You do know that you are late, right?"

Ambigious replied: "Not until now. In my defense, we don't actually have clocks down here and my sense of time isn't that good so 'in an hour' was a very vague statement."

Fire chuckled and said: "It's fine Ambigious."

Ambigious looked around and noted: "It is quite hot in here. I mean… what did I expect?"

Fire said: "Today I'll give you a brief overview over the materials we will be using. After that I will teach you different techniques you need when working metal. A large part of smithing is practice, which is also where some books from the library will come in handy."

Ambigious said: "I assume that the metals here are somewhat limited since we only have what Minecraft provides."

"Next to the normal Minecraft metals we also have silver as a counterpart to gold. While gold attracts magic, silver repels it. In theory a set of silver armor would keep you safe from most spells. In practice this isn't a good idea since it would be susceptible to conventional weapons. The only use of silver in combat is disabling mages or killing elemental creatures. Daggers, arrowheads and crossbow bolts made from silver greatly inhibit a mage's abilities as long as they remain stuck. You would be surprised how well silver weapons sell."

"Makes sense. But from what I have seen from freeZe, a determined mage will still kill you."

Fire nodded. "They are mainly used for what some call 'self-defense' in reality some are just a bit too paranoid or want to outright attack a mage. A lot of the more expensive mercenaries also have silver weapons in their arsenal, for obvious reasons. But the biggest buyers of silver weapons are still monster hunters." After a short pause Fire said: "There is a reason why almost nobody knows what I will tell you next. It is one of the most defended secrets of the Mencur-Besh."

Ambigious asked: "Which is?"

Fire replied: "Mencur-Besh are normally able to withstand huge amounts of damage. The exception to that are wounds caused by silver weapons. If silver comes in contact with the flesh of a Mencur-Besh, a paralysis will spread through their entire body. This effect stays even if the silver is removed and can only be cured by timely treatment, otherwise it leads to death. It isn't pretty."

"Yeah, I can see why you want nobody to know about this. You can touch silver normally but a small wound is fatal. Nasty."

Fire continued: "That's enough about silver. Gold is mostly used for decorative purposes since it is too soft for anything else. If a weapon or piece of armor is made to be enchanted, gold ornaments can go a long way in making said enchantment more effective though. Iron and steel are quite self-explanatory. Firesteel is different however. It is created in specialized forges, known as hellfire forges. One of them is behind that firesteel door, which is enchanted since it would melt otherwise. Instead of heating the metal in blaze powder, an entire room is heated up to extreme temperatures. That way the metal can be woven into the desired form. Firesteel armor uses a loose weave since it needs to be flexible, firesteel weapons use a tight weave."

Ambigious asked: "So… how do you weave metal?"

"Firesteel is created by first melting down high quality steel and adding obsidian and blaze powder, this mixture is then heated even more until the ingredients become an alloy. If one were to let it cool it would be next to useless, it would be too heavy and too brittle to be of any use. This is why the metal is pressed through thin diamond-glass tubes, creating strings. Those strings assume a state between liquid and solid, making them very malleable. Using a set of specialized tools you can then use the molten strings to weave the metal into a rough form. After that you can work the piece of metal into the final product. In a normal forge this would be impossible because the firesteel would cool off too quickly, which is why the entire room needs to be heated."

"I assume that we would need Fire Resistance potions to go into that room, right?"

"Exactly. But right now, I'll show you some of the basics of normal smithing. To be able work firesteel you must know how to work regular steel first. Here, I'll show you."

After supplying Ambigious with leather gloves and an apron Fire pulled a piece of hot metal out of the central blaze powder pit and instructed Ambigious to take another piece for himself. Fire took a hammer and started working the glowing metal on an anvil, while he did this he explained to Ambigious what exactly he was doing and told him to try to mimic it.

* * *

Over the next few hours Fire and Ambigious repeated this exercise several more times with more pieces of metal. Fire's metal pieces became various pieces of tableware. Ambigious' metal pieces became deformed metal pieces with some semblance of tableware.

Ambigious was audibly frustrated. "Man, this is hard! TehLulz already made orange tasting stuff, freeZe is setting rooms on fire and I'm sitting here making… this."

Fire explained: "It seems that way because there are few trivial tasks in smithing, I'm pretty sure you could have also brewed that potion, or anyone for that matter. As I said earlier, a large part of smithing is practice and experience and you simply don't have that yet."

"Yeah, makes sense. I guess."

"You can quit for today. Go eat something, read a book about smithing. You will be surprised."

Ambigious got up from the stool by his anvil and stretched. He put his tools back onto the tool racks, threw his gloves and apron to the ground and then left the smithy.

Fire knew better than to immediately follow Ambigious. He had known him for long enough to know that if he ever showed this kind of behavior he did not want to be disturbed under any circumstances. It once almost resulted in a pickaxe to the face for another slave in the mine who didn't know this. Ambigious didn't like it when others did better than him, but instead of being angry at others, he got angry at himself. If left undisturbed this would cause him to try to improve, if not the anger could quickly shift to an outside target.

Fire took his mind off his friend and started pacing around the smithy and inspected everything once again, the demons had kept it clean despite him not being there for a year. He had a lot of work ahead of him, after checking the potion supplies he had found out that next to the demon tongue potions a fair amount of others had run low or run out entirely, one of them being Fire Resistance. Fire remembered having used up the last bit shortly before being taken to the mine by the hackers. He had used that potion to finish work on the final piece of a new set of armor he had made for himself. He would also have to order a new shipment of supplies from Drandin when they were there. Ambigious would like Drandin, he would fit right in with the people there.

Fire decided that by now Ambigious was far enough away. He opened the wooden door and went down the corridor. He had a lot of work to do.


	54. Chapter 53

It was a late afternoon and the sun was low on the slowly reddening sky. Jack and Nathaniel were still walking on the dirt road. The forest had become significantly lighter. The trees didn't provide enough shade to protect them from the sun, they had to walk with their heads lowered to avoid looking directly into the light.

It had been a few days since their departure from Redwater, they had spent the nights by campfires. One advantage of travelling next to the stream of Redwater was that fish was plentiful. They had been fishing using rudimentary rods and then grilled the fish over their campfire. They wanted to go as far as possible without using the supplies they had bought in the town since they wouldn't be able to find much in the snowy area they planned to cross. They would normally walk beside each other silently and occasionally exchange various tales.

Nathaniel suddenly spoke in a quiet voice: "Someone has been following us for a few hours now."

Jack understood and kept walking, then asked in an equally quiet voice: "You think it's bandits?"

"Probably. They were waiting for sunset to prepare an ambush because we would be blinded by the sun. I think they will attack any moment now."

Jack reached behind his back and unhooked his shield, then put his left hand into the straps, his right hand was resting on the handle of his battleaxe. Nathaniel took similar precautions. If the bandits were still watching they knew that they just had lost the moment of surprise. Depending on how desperate they were they would probably attack despite this.

Jack had been practicing with his axe a good deal before setting out on his adventure but he hadn't yet been in an actual combat scenario. He had gotten into some serious fights in real life but none of those had had a fatal outcome. Tension built up inside of him.

He looked ahead and saw that there was a group of trees a small distance ahead of them, they provided cover and shade so he assumed that this was where they would be attacked from. With a quick glance to the side Nathaniel confirmed that he had seen it as well. Now only a couple of meters separated them from the ambush spot.

Jack was almost too slow to react when he saw the arrow flying towards him, he raised his shield just in time for the arrow to get stuck in it. Jack could feel the force of the impact pushing his arm back, at the same time he tried to figure out where the arrow was being shot from. Two more arrows flew towards them in rapid succession, one missed entirely and the other one was blocked by Nathaniel. Jack could see a silhouette between the trees and unhooked the battleaxe from his belt.

Nathaniel and Jack approached the group of trees at a faster speed now, making sure not to move in straight lines. They still had quite a way to go when Jack was hit by an arrow in the left shoulder. His chainmail armor stopped the arrow from getting to his skin but the impact still hurt. Suppressing a scream, Jack continued forward.

Just as they were about to reach the archer, two more bandits stepped out from behind a tree, a woman and a man. They were holding what looked like lumber axes and were wearing leather armor. It was obvious that they were not doing great in the banditing business.

Nathaniel gave Jack a quick look and then continued storming past the two bandits, he wanted to go after the archer to prevent him from getting more shots in. It was now Jack's responsibility to deal with the other two.

The bandits hesitated for a short moment, they clearly wanted to prevent Nathaniel from getting to their friend. Jack quickly closed the gap to the man and delivered a hefty blow to the side of his hip, his axe was slowed down considerably by the leather armor but got deep enough to draw blood. The man screamed in pain. Jack knew that the woman would attack him, he quickly kicked the man in the side of the knee and turned around to block the woman's axe with this shield. The impact was hard and his shoulder already hurt from the arrow, a flash of pain went up his arm. Jack sincerely hoped that Nathaniel would be done with the archer quickly.

The woman's axe was stuck in Jack's shield and she tried to get it out. Jack took a few quick steps back and at the same time tore his shield away to the side, making the woman lose grip on her axe that was still firmly embedded in the shield.

Meanwhile the man had gotten back on his feet and attacked Jack again, he wasn't quick enough to block his blow as well, the axe blade scraped along Jack's left arm and hit him in the shoulder once again. Jack's entire left arm was lit up with pain and it was getting difficult to focus. Jack narrowly avoided the attempt of the woman to jump him, instead he swung at the man. By sheer luck Jack's axe blade found the man's throat. With another kick Jack sent him to the ground.

The woman had gotten back up and this time her attempt at jumping Jack was successful, she managed to throw him to the ground and started choking him. Jack desperately looked over to Nathaniel who was still in a fight with the archer, presumable the most skilled of the three bandits. Jack's right hand was buried under his own body and his left hand was still stuck in the straps of his shield.

The woman was still on him and despite her being lighter than him she did her best to keep him under control. Slowly Jack's vision began to fade as his air supply was cut off, a few seconds later his eyes closed. Just as the woman loosened her grip on Jack's neck, he suddenly opened his eyes again and managed to get his hand free. He reached down to his belt, drew his dagger and fiercely attacked the woman, taking her by surprise. Jack's stabs were well placed and quick, much to his own surprise. His last attack managed slit the woman's throat. Jack pushed her off of him and looked over to Nathaniel, it seemed like he had won his battle as well.

Groaning, Jack stood up and made sure that both his opponents were dead, then he walked over to Nathaniel, who seemed to be largely unharmed. About half way there Jack really began to feel the pain in his left arm as the adrenaline started wearing off.

He said: "That could have gone much worse."

Nathaniel asked: "Are you wounded?"

Jack replied: "Not really, this is their blood. My left arm did take quite a beating but it should only be bruises. Still hurts like hell though."

"No broken ribs or anything?"

"Not that I know."

"That's good. You were outnumbered and we both know how quickly such battles can go south."

Jack nodded. "Did they have anything of value?"

Nathaniel held up the archer's bow. "The bow seems to be exceptionally well made, it might even be from Drandin. This dark wood and the red string are usually a good indicator."

Jack asked: "Any idea who they were?"

"They are dead now. I assume that the archer was their leader since he also had a bag with coins on him. We should look around to see if they dropped their supplies off somewhere near here."

Jack couldn't argue with that. They searched the general area around where the ambush had happened and indeed found a cloth bag hidden inside a bush. As they inspected it they were surprised that the bandits had quite a bit of food inside it, along with some jewelry.

"They must have hit a trade caravan. I can only make assumptions but maybe their group used to be bigger and some of them died in the fight there. They might have grabbed something that fell off the caravan in the battle before being forced to retreat." Nathaniel said.

Jack replied: "It makes sense that they would go after two mercs after that, they needed to get some decent equipment and they needed it fast."

"I think I saw the face of the archer at the bounty hunter board in Redwater, they are obviously wanted there so they can't just go to the town to get gear."

Jack nodded. "Yeah."

Nathaniel said: "Let's keep going until sun sets, then we'll make a campfire and I'll have a look at that arm of yours."

Jack had no objections towards this course of action. The two mercenaries started to walk silently beside each other once again. It was slowly dawning on Jack that his search for Fire would give him more than he bargained for.


	55. Chapter 54

It had been a couple of weeks since Fire's arrival in the base. Shadow had really missed her brother, she was happy that he made it out of the quarry. The silent hallways and expansive rooms could get very lonely. There were some demons roaming around she could talk to but only by drinking demon tongue potion, which tasted terribly and gave her a headache whenever she tried to think in regular words while under its effect. She did log out from time to time to drink, eat or walk for a bit but she kept those times to a minimum since every minute she spent outside of the server was an hour of time she could put to good use inside of it.

In the year that she had been alone Shadow had used the contacts she had all over the server to help prepare Fire's plan, he hadn't told her much before he was taken away and she only recently had been told the rest. Fire rarely planned ahead in detail and he had good reasons for it. He had rough outlines for plans but if there were any uncertainties or external factors he couldn't control he would fill in the details in the short term. For example freeZe being a mage altered his plan significantly. Shadow herself had also contributed to the current version of the plan quite a bit, the recent developments in the world would make some things easier and others harder.

The training was coming along well, all of their apprentices had done quite nicely. Although Ambigious hadn't been off to a good start, in the first two weeks his mood could be described as perpetually miffed at best and furious at worst. But he too quickly got the hang of his discipline and now worked on creating weapons and armor for the group along with Fire.

TehLulz was doing quite well too, he had made good progress with learning how to enchant. He did occasionally have problems with runes escaping his influence but that wasn't too much of a problem since an escaping rune would just lead to having to start over. One of his most recent artefacts was a glass bottle that could hold much more liquid than its size would allow. While this was by no means a new thing, it was one of the harder enchantments to perform.

The most remarkable of their apprentices was Unchosen, every time Shadow came by the potion lab he would be inside of it experimenting with something new. She had even once tasked her shadow with watching the door to see if he ever even left it to sleep. To her surprise, he didn't. He seemed to have created something like a drinkable substitute for sleep. When Shadow asked him about it he revealed that it was the first ever complex potion he had successfully brewed and that it didn't have side effects as far as he knew. Fire had been impressed by his discovery or more accurately by the fact that Unchosen had managed to brew his potion without causing side effects, which he himself hadn't managed yet.

As for Shadow's own student… freeZe had made progress in controlling her magic but still was far from done, she had no problems controlling Fire and Air magic as long as the power of the spell was average or high. The problems came in when she tried casting low-power spells such as creating sparks in her palm. The sparks would either not come out at all or emerge as a jet of fire. Where freeZe had problems casting magic, her ability to detect it were impressive. If Shadow cast a spell, freeZe could mimic it on the first or second try. This was a relief to Shadow since teaching spells to students was the most difficult part of teaching magic, that way Shadow could focus on helping freeZe with her lack of control.

While thinking about the current situation Shadow had been pacing up and down her room, which looked much like the other bedrooms in the base in basic design but Shadow had added a lot of things to it over the thousands of years she had lived in the base. One of those things was a desk with a glowstone lamp above it, this was where she wrote books, most of the time about magic but she had also written a couple of novels. Right now she was trying to get into the right mindset to write again, the book she was currently writing was one of those that would store her memories and pass them on to the reader. When writing those books it was very important not to include unrelated or personal memories, which was not only impractical for the reader but could also be dangerous to the author if they revealed sensitive information that way. If the book itself was improperly enchanted it could even result in stealing the memories of the author instead of copying them, fortunately Shadow didn't have to worry about that since the books she used had been enchanted by the collective of the Enchanter Guild of Rockhaven.

The book she was currently writing was about her mentorship over freeZe. This was a common thing to do for mages teaching apprentices, writing down words and memories about an apprentice could help themselves or other mages teach their own apprentices. Sometimes other apprentices would also read those books to get more insight, Shadow had instructed freeZe to do so as well.

Shadow was thinking about how to best describe the training session they had earlier that day. It had been quite a difficult one. Magical training wasn't gradual, it went in bursts. An apprentice would sometimes gain insight into their own magical potential or into magic in general due to some thought process or experience, an epiphany so to speak. Shadow knew that freeZe was close to one such epiphany but she wasn't quite there yet, freeZe felt this as well and had been getting increasingly frustrated, not unlike her brother. At the end of their last session she had been so angry that she had sent bolts of lightning through the room in a fit of rage, then apologized and ran off. Shadow sighed. Learning magic wasn't easy, not physically, not mentally and most definitely not emotionally.

Just as Shadow was about to sit back down she noticed something moving at the edge of her vision. It turned out that it was just her shadow returning to the room through the gap below the door, she must have been taking a walk through the base on her own. Not long from her ascension, Shadow had started to refer to her shadow as "Wodahs" since people saying "Shadow's shadow" got silly quite quickly, Wodahs didn't seem to mind.

It had taken Shadow a very long while to figure out what Wodahs really was, at first she suspected that she might be her old life force but she quickly realized that that couldn't be the case since Wodahs had a completely different magical composition than life force in general. Her being an elemental creature or a demon was out of the picture quickly as well since she didn't react at all to silver or gold… or any material for that matter. In general, Wodahs was a strange being, she could interact with the shadows that people and objects cast and whatever she did to the shadow would happen to the owner. She could even go as far as to rip a shadow from something and carry it around with her, this was limited to inanimate objects though. Shadow herself was the only thing Wodahs couldn't touch, which was good in a way. She had seen Wodahs kill or restrain people using their shadows when Shadow was in trouble, she had saved her a lot of trouble that way a couple of times. Generally though Wodahs was more mischievous than anything else, normally a tap on the shoulder followed by a giggle would be the most she did to people. In reality, if Shadow would tell someone the true nature of her shadow, only few people would believe her.

As Wodahs walked along the floor in Shadow's direction, she waved at her, then connected to Shadow's feet and assumed the same stance as Shadow. Once again Shadow sighed, she hoped that she would be able to help freeZe with her fine control over magic before they departed. One thing was sure, they would depart according to plan, even if that meant that freeZe would go with incomplete training, they could do lessons along the way but it was far from ideal. Something about the upcoming journey deeply troubled Shadow, maybe it was the astronomically low odds of it actually succeeding, despite Fire's plans. Maybe it was what would happen if they failed.

Another sigh. She picked up her black quill, dipped it into a pot with red ink and prepared to start writing on the white paper again. Black, red, white. Those colors were her colors, hers and Fire's, they had been for a very long time. Soon they would leave the base behind and go to collect artefacts, some of which they didn't even know. Four of them would be new to the world out there, a dangerous world of near infinite possibilities, a world of colors. Right now Shadow only cared about the three colors in front of her. She opened her mind and let her thoughts flow into the paper along with the ink.


	56. Chapter 55

Phoebe heard from the other interrogators that the stories of all the scientists added up. They could of course all be telling the same lie but the attack on their systems was impressive enough to lead her to believe that Sarah, the one she had interrogated herself, could break out and run away whenever she wanted with those fingertip implants. After the interrogation she questioned the three of them together. It was quite unsettling to see that Harald indeed was almost completely paralyzed, whenever he wanted to say something he wrote it down onto a small note pad on the armrest of his wheelchair and looked at the whoever it was meant for, who would then have to take the piece of paper.

After some discussion with the rest of the agency, Phoebe decided that it would be best to set up camp in the lab where they had found the scientists. Hannah said that she would drive them there.

* * *

Now the scientists, Hannah, Phoebe and a few guards stood in the wide open warehouse the lab was situated in. Gerald was also along for the ride since he absolutely did not want to pass up on the opportunity to examine their setup. Everything in the lab was very clean without looking lifeless, it made sense since this was a laboratory as well as a home. One side of the warehouse was dedicated to research, the other side had containers lined up against the wall which functioned as living space.

Anna showed them around. The first thing she showed them was a white cube with multiple vents, the cube had bundled cables coming out of it.

Phoebe said: "I assume that that is the server you set up here. The one that connects all those people."

Anna nodded. "Yes."

Gerald pointed to a smaller cube next to the large one, this one was black. "What's that? A backup server?"

Anna explained: "No, all backup systems are contained within the main cube. The smaller cube is housing the closest thing to artificial intelligence that we were able to create. We named it 'Mencur-Besh'."

"Fascinating. What does it do exactly? Can it speak?"

"It can speak, but not to us. It lives inside the server as well. It is manifested as a variable number of independent sub-personalities which can be linked. Each sub-personality is fully functional on its own and can think logically."

Gerald was visibly trying his best not to start spouting questions. He asked: "So, how do they interact?"

"All sub-personalities are permanently linked loosely, enabling them to access a common repository of skills and facts. Multiple sub-personalities can engage in a strong link, the collective formed by them is able to feel emotions, the more are linked the more complex their emotional capacity gets. If you would theoretically link all of them together in a strong link you would get one fully fledged and feeling personality. The problem with this is that the more join the link the more processing power it takes, with the technology of our time it isn't possible to achieve a full linkup for a sustained amount of time yet." Anna paused.

She continued: "There has been an incident though, about a year back our diagnostics system reported that for no apparent reason all sub-personalities decided to form a strong link. The link persisted for longer than should be possible, after the link broke only a third of the sub-personalities were left, the others were gone."

Gerald said: "Wow… this has got to be the most interesting day in my life. First I find out about actual for real brain-computer interfaces and then there is AI? Just wow. Tell me more, everything."

Phoebe chuckled to herself, Gerald really could be like a child sometimes when it came to computer science things he didn't know. She felt a tap on her shoulder, it was Sarah.

She said: "Thought that it would be a good idea to show you the other side of the warehouse, your friend definitely has the tech side covered. It would be good to show you the home side of things, you will be living here for an indefinite amount of time after all."

Phoebe answered: "Yeah."

They had decided that they would not leave the warehouse since cars constantly coming and going tended to draw attention. Phoebe followed Sarah to the containers, there were labels above the doors, indicating which ones were bathrooms and which ones were bedrooms. There were also a few unlabeled containers.

"What are those for?"

"Those three there are connected to form a living room of sorts. One is a fridge. The rest are guest rooms, there should be enough for everyone."

The guest rooms were an odd mixture of sparse and luxurious, there wasn't much in there but what little was in them was of high quality. Each room had a bed, a desk, a wardrobe and a washing basin, a dedicated bathroom was in a different container.

At the end of the tour Sarah showed Phoebe the living room, it was fairly spacious. One wall was occupied by a canvas that had a projector pointed at it, in front of it was a red couch. The other three walls were hung with abstract paintings.

Phoebe asked: "Are those the paintings you made with your mind?"

Sarah nodded. Then she walked over to the couch and sat down on it.

She said: "I imagine you have some more questions."

Phoebe sat down next to her and replied: "I do, we need every bit of information we can get if we want to find those hackers."

"Then I have a proposition for you."

Phoebe raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"

"Instead of giving you the information verbally I can just transfer it from my brain to yours."

"Whoa there. Is that safe? I don't want to end up with permanent brain damage."

Sarah smiled. "A two brain linkup works without any problems in almost one hundred percent of cases and even if there are problems, it is unlikely that it will cause permanent damage. We made sure of this. I wouldn't be suggesting it to you if it wasn't safe."

Phoebe asked: "What about when more people are connected?"

"With three people it is about as stable as with two but it goes downhill from there. Just like with our AI, the more are connected the more resource intensive it gets, which means that small calculation errors and interference are more common and have more devastating effects. The difference is that the Mencur-Besh's sub-personalities were made to be able to form links while our brains were not."

Phoebe said: "I am still not entirely convinced by this."

Sarah replied: "It will be much faster than asking me verbally and we can make sure that I leave nothing out."

Phoebe had to agree with Gerald on the front that a day ago she would definitely not have believed what she heard now. And she would have not agreed to a brain linkup with someone she had only known for a few hours. Then again, there were a lot of lives on the line and she really needed all the time she could get.

Phoebe sighed. "Okay. One more thing though."

"Yes?"

"Is it possible for you to manipulate me in any way?"

"It definitely is but that would be a very bad idea since you would notice it and you have armed guards with you. That and I wouldn't risk my only chance at saving the people on the server."

Phoebe had made her decision: "Fine. So how do you go about this?"

"Give me your hand."

As the implants in Sarah's fingertips touched Phoebe's hand everything started spinning. She let herself fall backwards into the couch. A numb feeling started spreading from her hand through the rest of her body, a few seconds later everything went black.

* * *

Phoebe found herself in a seemingly infinite white room, the only thing that wasn't white was the black wooden bench with silver decorations that she was sitting on. Sarah was sitting next to her.

Phoebe asked: "Where is this?"

Sarah smiled and said: "This is our connected mind. As you see, right now it is still blank. We can bring things from our own minds into this connected one, watch."

She stood up and waved her arm towards the horizon. Colors spread from her hand outwards, painting the white room with a blue sky and green meadow, which then quickly turned into a forest.

Phoebe was awestruck. "Wow…"

Sarah said: "You can try it too, bring something from your mind into here."

Phoebe had no idea how she knew what she was doing but somehow everything seemed as if she had been doing this since forever. She made flowers sprout from the grass and created a pond a few meters to the right.

Sarah explained: "This is the potential of our software in its pure, unbound form. I think I don't need to explain why some people might really want this."

Phoebe said: "It's amazing."

"Okay, now for why we came here in the first place. What do you want to know?"

"I think it would be good to know more about Peter since he is the only other one directly involved in this who I haven't met yet."

Sarah said: "Good point. I will now give you my memories of Peter, you will see everything through my eyes."

Phoebe was overcome by a sudden flood of information, pictures, sounds, smells and other things. They were suddenly hers even though she had never actually experienced them. She would need time to process them but she was sure that they were another step closer to understanding what was happening.


	57. Chapter 56

The preparations were complete. Over the course of several weeks three sets of armor and weapons had been created, potions had been brewed, supplies had been packed and now they were ready to go. Fire was satisfied with the completion of Ambigious', Unchosen's and TehLulz' training. freeZe still was far from done but that was to be expected, the main factor that made a novice mage into a master was experience and she would certainly get that on their journeys.

The six of them were standing in the entrance hall of the base. Fire, Ambigious, Unchosen and TehLulz were wearing their black firesteel armor, Shadow and freeZe were wearing identical black robes. Fire carried a variety of weapons including a halberd and his bow. The others had stuck to their choice of weapons from the training, only that now their weapons were custom-fit to them. Ambigious had heavyheartedly discarded his sunglasses since wearing them below his helmet was quite impractical. They had forgone archery for the most part, only TehLulz was carrying a crossbow that he and Ambigious had made in collaboration, Ambigious had created it and the bolts, TehLulz had enchanted it to consume negligible amounts of life force in order to aid cocking the string. They carried supplies in a variety of pouches and backpacks, their inventories were mostly empty since the hackers could still see what they were carrying.

Fire went over their supplies one last time to make sure that they were not missing anything, then they turned to go. As the group climbed the stairs up to the elevator TehLulz pointed at a demon who was carving something into a blank wall.

He asked: "What's it doing there?"

Fire answered: "Engraving a picture of our departure."

Instead of asking anything further they stepped onto the elevator platform which started to move upwards, slowly at first but gradually speeding up. A couple of seconds later the elevator had disappeared into the hole in the ceiling. Fire looked upwards, he could see the bottom of the projection that concealed the elevator rapidly approaching. When they arrived at the top Fire felt a pulse of energy passing through them.

freeZe flinched, she asked: "What was that?"

Shadow explained: "We just left the ender field warp that contains the base, if nobody is inside time stands still in there. Demons however are not affected by our time so they can still move and act inside. Expect that engraving to be done when we are back."

They all were in a good mood, enthusiastic about finally setting out on their quest. Fire and Shadow less so than the others since they knew more about the world and its dangers but there was no denying that they were still in good spirits. Ambigious was joking around with his friends while freeZe talked to Shadow. Fire went ahead of the group and used a sword to clear out the bushes and vines that occupied most of the space in the jungle.

Unchosen said: "Turns out that when you are equipped and well fed, travelling isn't much of a problem anymore."

Fire nodded. "I can only agree. How is the armor doing?"

"I honestly don't even notice it's there, it just goes with my movements. That and it is also quite cool. Both looks wise and temperature wise."

Ambigious said: "Yup, firesteel is one hell of a material, keeps heat and cold out while being protective and flexible."

A couple of hours later they left the jungle, the biome it bordered was a savannah. As soon as they stepped out from underneath the trees, the sun burnt down onto them. The warriors' firesteel armor kept most of the heat out, Shadow and freeZe were protected by a rectangular projection above their heads.

Fire's plan for this day was to reach a small oasis and then camp there, from there on they would walk through the savannah for two more days and then they would reach a mountainous biome.

Shadow asked freeZe: "Did you read anything about Drandin?"

freeZe said: "Nothing really. I noticed the name in a couple of times in some books. Other than that, I just know what you two mentioned." She paused for a moment. "And then there was that engraving in the living quarters of course."

Shadow explained: "Mencur-Besh usually either live nomadic lifestyles or have some function in a town, you never hear of Mencur-Besh settlements, right? That's not because there aren't any. It is because most of them never lasted. Sometimes because the humans got scared and tried to wage war, forcing the Mencur-Besh to retreat, other times because being nomads would benefit the collective more than staying in one place."

freeZe said: "I assume that Drandin is one of those settlements?"

"It was one of the first ones and as opposed to any other ones, Drandin still is a Mencur-Besh settlement. I should actually say that it is a settlement of those associated with the Eye-and-Claws, it has been that way from the very start. It began as a mining outpost in a particularly hostile mountain region. The Mencur-Besh and the most capable warriors and miners that carried the Eye-and-Claws established a foothold there, constantly defending against magical creatures and hordes of undead. With time they managed to gain the upper hand over the environment, magical anomalies were found and neutralized, mob spawners were shattered. They had performed some basic mining during their defense because they needed resources but after the battle was won they could start digging deep, deeper than anyone has ever dug on the server."

freeZe said: "Right, makes sense. The stone goes deeper too."

Shadow continued: "With time they had mastered the art of mining, becoming able to break harder rocks and to dig even deeper. Drandin's population is about two thirds human and one third Mencur-Besh, you'll never see more of them in one place than in Drandin, over a quarter of the two thousand total Mencur-Besh live there. As you may know, most of the mined resources on the server come from Drandin, along with things that are only found in the deepest layers. There are gems that can store many times more magical energy than diamonds, that and much more. The drandinians also came up with a way to crystalize diamonds into armor, weapons and tools, the process takes years but the resulting gear is more or less indestructible. The weapons and tools cut through just about anything."

Ambigious remarked: "And I read that they also brew and drink a lot of alcohol there. They are as close to dwarves as it gets."

Shadow explained: "We are heading towards an entrance of the old underground railway, it was built a couple of thousand years back in order to facilitate the moving of resources all over the world. It was and still is the prime way to get around if you have an Eye-and-Claws mark."

Shadow kept talking to them for quite some time and the sun was starting to set. Fire could already see the oasis he wanted to reach in the distance, only about half an hour of walking separated them from it. He was quite satisfied that the first step of their journey was almost completed, completely according to plan. He hoped that the future steps would be equally easy even though he knew that it wouldn't be the case. There were no perfect plans, only good enough plans.

When they reached the oasis they laid down some blankets to sleep on and lit a campfire. They sat there and talked until they were tired. Shadow summoned a ghostly eye to watch over them while they slept. They went to sleep after convincing Ambigious that the eye was a sufficient security measure and would not murder them with laser beams. As usual, Fire was the last one to fall asleep.


	58. Chapter 57

The sun was just rising as Fire woke up. The eye Shadow had conjured was still floating above them, observing the savannah. Fire took a look around himself, he saw that there was a respectable number of monsters roaming about a fair distance away, none of them came close to the oasis. The monsters were mostly zombies, some had weapons, a couple of them wore armor. There were a few skeletons and creepers in the mix but nothing was troubling. Fire couldn't see any spiders in the crowds, this was because unlike undead or creepers didn't spawn in the dark. Spiders lived in underground dens and came out to hunt at night, the absence of spiders was just an indication that there was no such den nearby.

Fire dismissed the eye since he would now be keeping watch. After sitting on his blanket for a few minutes Fire got an idea. The sun was about to reach the point where lesser undead started burning. He poked Ambigious in the shoulder. Surprisingly he immediately responded.

"What is it?" He asked.

Fire said: "Do you want to fight against some actual enemies, I figured that you all could use some combat experience that doesn't come from projections."

Ambigious slowly rose. "Good that I slept well in the days before we departed, helps with not being as useful as a rock after waking up."

They woke up the others as well. They were already wearing their armor since the flexibility of firesteel armor combined with the padded clothes below allowed them to sleep quite comfortably without taking the armor off.

Shadow said: "You can fight alone or together, just pick any target you want. Those lesser undead shouldn't be able to do much to you if you don't get swarmed." She turned to freeZe. "It would be better if you fought away from the others."

freeZe nodded. "Right. Wouldn't want to cook them alive accidentally."

Ambigious went first, charging at a small group of zombies. He used a huge downwards swing to cave one zombie's head in, he kept on attacking the zombies and killed a few more. The noise he made attracted some of the other undead, more zombies and a few skeletons started walking towards his position.

As he killed another zombie he yelled: "Could use some help over here."

His friends were more than happy to join the fight. Unchosen joined Ambigious in the thick of the fight while TehLulz went around killing lone zombies and skeletons using his battleaxe. He didn't use his crossbow, probably because he didn't feel like wasting his ammo on trivial enemies.

Fire watched as they killed one undead after the other, any hits they took were reflected or redirected by their armor. No, basic monsters were not a problem when you were properly equipped. That was what some of the rarer monsters were for, like the skeletal mages. Thinking about mages, Fire turned around to his sister and freeZe. freeZe was shooting fireballs at the undead and occasionally made pillars of flame erupt from the ground in larger groups.

Shadow said: "She is quite good, isn't she?"

Fire nodded: "Even if she has problems with controlling the energy flow, you can't say that she is inaccurate with her spells."

"Honestly, she has improved quite a lot over the last few days, more than I expected."

"Anything to do with that one time where she stormed off?"

"Maybe. All I know is that I felt some energy pulses before I went to sleep."

Fire asked: "You mean she was training on her own?"

Shadow nodded: "Probably. Mages can get a lot done when they are dedicated." She then turned to Fire and asked: "What do you say? Let's kill some undead ourselves."

Instead of answering, Fire picked up his halberd and charged into a large horde of zombies. He swung his weapon in a wide sideways arc and decapitated a whole row of zombies with the axe blade of the halberd. He then impaled another zombie and while pulling the spear tip away he smacked yet another one over the head with the end of the handle.

Shadow meanwhile attacked another group with a barrage of multielemental magic. Different runes on her skin started glowing as she created ice spikes in the air and hurled them forward. That attack was followed by a mixture of lightning and flame jets. freeZe had stopped shooting flames and instead started watching her mentor's furious assault on the undead horde.

The dust was settling and most of the undead had been mowed down, freeZe looked at Shadow in awe.

She said: "That's amazing. I have never actually seen you fight."

Shadow responded with a smirk: "I usually don't use elemental attacks, that's your specialty as a Fire and Air mage. I usually fight with more subtle, efficient methods. Watch."

The few remaining zombies suddenly started attacking each other viciously, clawing at whatever they could find. Quite quickly only a single zombie was left standing, with a snap of her fingers Shadow made it crumble to dust.

"The snap was for show, just so you know." Shadow said.

freeZe asked: "Wither magic, right?"

"Yes. Necromancy to be precise."

Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen had rejoined them, apparently done with their own group of zombies.

Ambigious asked half-jokingly: "Can you stop talking about your magic stuff for one minute?"

Fire said: "Now that we are warmed up we can start walking again. Those mountains you see in the distance are where the stairs down to the railway are. There will probably be more dangerous monsters there, the deeper you get the deadlier they become."

Unchosen asked: "So, at bedrock level. What would you find there?"

Fire said: "Nothing fun, trust me. Commonly known as fog wraiths, you can ask the people of Drandin, most have seen them first-hand."

Without further words they packed their things and continued on their way through the savannah. A bit later they came across a paved road, which they were very glad for. Walking on a road was so much easier than walking on the dried out grass.

It was a bit inconvenient for Fire to walk with regular-sized people since he had to significantly shorten his steps to not let the others fall behind. This reminded him of a similar situation he had been in around five hundred years back. The people he travelled with back then had been interesting to say the least, and that walk had been only the beginning of the strangeness.

He said: "For next time we will probably take the horses."

TehLulz asked: "What horses?"

"The horses in our base, we have stables in there too." Shadow explained.

TehLulz said: "Huh, your base really is much bigger than I thought."

Ambigious asked: "So, there is a horse that can carry Fire?"

Fire nodded: "There is. It's black and has red eyes."

"You are kidding, right?"

"He isn't." Shadow confirmed. "It's called 'Nightmare'."

"Wow. That's cheesy, even for my standards." Ambigious laughed.

Shadow said: "Mine is called 'Daydream', it's completely white."

freeZe asked: "Seriously?"

The rest of their journey on the road to the mountains had lost all seriousness in a matter of minutes. Fire could almost forget about the importance of their mission, for now they were in no danger and it would stay that way until they reached the staircase. The stairs down would probably be the only dangerous part of the journey to Rockhaven if he could arrange some means of transportation from Drandin to there. The railway was quite safe. For now Fire kept the upcoming dangers buried in the back of his mind until they would become relevant, which at the moment was quite easy since the jokes made sure to keep them there for a while.


	59. Chapter 58

After two full days of walking they arrived at the foot of the mountains, instead of continuing to the stairway they set up camp and rested the night to be prepared to clear the stairs of monsters.

freeZe felt quite good the next morning, the combination of her robes and the blankets they were lying on made for very comfortable sleep, not quite as comfortable as the beds in the base but far better than what she was used to from the mine and the journey. After eating some of the food they had brought with them and drinking some water they were ready to start walking again.

Fire took the lead as they climbed the mountain, he had told them that the entrance to the stairs was located in a rock wall on a plateau a few hundred meters higher. Climbing the mountain without any sort of path was difficult but it was something they were used to. freeZe had expected her mentor to at least be a little bit slower than them since she was shorter and seemed to be physically weaker than the rest of them. To her surprise Shadow seemed to have no problems what so ever, freeZe also quickly figured out why, with a bit of concentration she could sense the Air magic below Shadow's feet. freeZe wondered if she could use the subtler applications for Air magic to her advantage as well once she practiced it.

They reached the plateau Fire talked about within an hour, they could already see the rock wall the entrance was supposed to be located in.

"Where is it?" Unchosen asked.

Fire said: "It's locked. Takes a Mencur-Besh or an Eye-and-Claws mark to open it."

With those words he walked up to the wall and placed his hand against it. At first nothing happened but then the old mechanism awoke from its sleep. With a grinding sound a part of the wall swung backwards and revealed a passage into the mountain. After passing through, the door closed again, becoming flush with the surrounding stone. freeZe suspected that there was a little bit of magic at work here too, otherwise the door wouldn't be quite so invisible.

Shadow approached freeZe. "Don't be wasteful with your magic in here, since we are going underground there won't be much environmental energy to refill your life force from."

Fire explained to everyone: "The deeper you go the stronger the influence of the Void gets, weaker creatures just instantly die when they get deep enough. There is also a point where most unprotected humans get significantly weakened up to being put in a coma. Monsters are not immune to this either, which is why you find stronger and more dangerous monsters the deeper you go. We will encounter scarier things than we have so far. Zombies will be faster and more intelligent, skeletons will have better aim. Your armor may protect you but it doesn't make you invincible, especially not against stronger creatures."

freeZe mumbled: "Like ghouls."

Fire nodded. "Like ghouls."

They all checked their weapons again, this time TehLulz seemed to be willing to use his crossbow. freeZe went through her mental list of cost-efficient spells that she could use so that she wouldn't burn so much life force.

As they started their descent down the wide spiral staircase she asked Shadow: "So, I guess necromancy is harder against the stronger monsters here?"

Shadow nodded: "Yes, controlling them is hard but making them crumble isn't. It just requires a lot of concentration so that you just turn the zombie to dust and not something else. It's more useful against single targets than groups."

Shadow lit a glowing orb that floated above the group, it revealed that the walls of the staircase had countless engravings in a familiar style in them.

Ambigious asked: "Why aren't the stairs lit?"

Fire said: "They were originally. It's just that this entrance hasn't been used in hundreds of years. Things decay."

freeZe spotted a group of skeletons, seemingly lying in wait with their bows drawn at the edge of the light. She quickly shot a ball of compact flames at them. It exploded on impact and lit the entire group on fire. Ambigious and Unchosen moved in to finish them off while they were distracted by the flames. The noises of shattering bones echoed throughout the entire staircase. A few seconds later freeZe heard many feet climbing stairs, the monsters had been alerted.

Fire said: "Get ready, this won't be easy."

The first few monsters came around the corner, they were four zombies that looked a little bigger and less decayed than their surface counterparts, they were also noticeably faster and more decisive. The four warriors had formed a defensive line in front of the two mages. When the zombies reached them Ambigious attacked one with his mace, stopping it in its tracks with a well-placed blow to the head, Fire impaled another one on his halberd. The remaining two were cut down by TehLulz and Unchosen.

"Those were more durable." Ambigious noted.

Nobody had time to answer, the next couple of undead came around the corner. This time it was even more zombies and a few skeletons. Fire looked to his sister, she nodded and her runes started glowing. The skeletons were lifted up into the air and then slammed into the ground with bone-shattering force. freeZe lobbed another fireball into the crowd of zombies to help thin them out. This time it wasn't as easy to kill them since there were more than before. Ambigious had been knocked off his feet and was now being focused by the horde. The others tried their best to keep the zombies off their friend. Fire had dropped his halberd and switched to a lighter axe with which he was now splitting zombie skulls. Eventually the zombies were fought off and nobody had sustained any major injuries.

Unchosen said: "If you can spare the energy it would be good to have a bit more artillery support, especially if the next horde is even bigger."

freeZe nodded and said: "Can do, I still have plenty left."

The next horde took a few minutes to arrive but it was indeed bigger and much more frightening. The zombies were now noticeably larger and more muscular, the skeletons had larger bows and there were now creepers in the mix.

While the monsters approached, TehLulz used his crossbow to shoot out a couple of the creepers before they could come closer. He landed a couple of head shots, making them explode and thin the zombies out but there were still a few creepers left that he didn't have shots on. Shadow and freeZe were now laying waste to the zombies with a combined flame attack, they couldn't afford to hold back anymore.

Fire was the one to notice the creeper first, it had come dangerously close and was preparing to explode. Fire threw himself down the stairs to kick the creeper off its four legs. The creeper was now on the floor, still swelling up, Fire wasn't able get out of the explosion radius quickly enough. freeZe only saw the bright flash and zombie bits splattering onto the walls. She threw another fireball at the head of a creeper at the back of the horde, causing it to explode and take out all remaining creepers as well in a chain reaction. She could see Fire curled up in a ball inside the mass of zombies, Ambigious and TehLulz were cutting their way to him while Unchosen kept guarding the mages. The remaining zombies were mopped up quickly. Fire seemed to have sustained some injuries since there was blood dripping onto the floor below him.

"It's not much." He assured them.

The others also had been injured but nothing like Fire. freeZe listened out and discovered that there were no more step noises.

"Did we make it?" She asked.

Fire groaned and answered: "Maybe. There may still be some undead left that didn't come up but it seems like this was the bulk of them. Shadow, would you mind closing my wounds?"

His sister nodded and cast the spell. freeZe noticed that it was only a rudimentary healing spell that stopped the bleeding and ensured he would be able to keep fighting. A full healing spell would cost much more than this one, especially on a Mencur-Besh.

freeZe had gotten a feeling for spells that were cast in her vicinity. She could replicate most of them if they had to do with Fire or Air, those spells always had a special kind of resonance with her own life force. Strangely enough she had felt a small amount of resonance as well when Shadow had made that one zombie crumble in the savannah. She had then tried to cast some Wither magic herself, trying to make a plant wilt. It had felt like she was able to generate enough Wither magic for the spell but then she had been unable to give it direction.

They slowly descended further into the depths, always on the lookout for danger. Suddenly Fire stopped and signaled them to do so as well.

He said: "I heard something, there is definitely something up ahead and it just started moving. It doesn't seem to be small either…"

Before he could speak further they heard a primal, bone-chilling scream. A second later something very large came running up the staircase, even taller than Fire. It was a muscular, hunched over figure with long arms. As it came closer to the light freeZe could see exactly what it was. She tensed up as she recognized it, it was a ghoul. Its pale skin was covered in dried blood. It was just as terrible as Andras Thornhook had described it, only that this one wore more skulls than the one in his drawing. She could hear her brother curse as he prepared to defend against the charging beast. She reflexively shot a fireball at it, but it just shrugged off the explosion.

Fire yelled: "Don't let that thing hit you, distract it while Shadow and freeZe deal with it."

Shadow yelled back: "I don't have much energy left, the healing took a lot."

The ghoul went for Unchosen first, he barely avoided its clawed hands as it swiped at him. Meanwhile freeZe prepared a more powerful fireball and hurled it at the ghoul. This one managed to set it on fire but that only seemed to make it angrier. It was just as she had read in the book, it seemed to be almost completely fireproof and she wasn't confident enough to use lighting, especially since the others were wearing metal armor.

While Unchosen still was evading the ghoul, Fire had managed to land a hit on one of its arms with his halberd only for it to turn around and swat the weapon out of Fire's hands with its uninjured arm, the halberd went flying down the stairs into the darkness. Nothing the others did to it seemed to help, it was just too resilient to care about any of their attacks.

Suddenly freeZe had an idea. She remembered when they were in the nether and one of the cultists used Wither magic on Ambigious. She knew that Wither would devour anything that lived or un-lived but needed constant attention from its caster, flames also devoured everything and didn't need any help. Maybe she could…

The ghoul was now towering above TehLulz who was lying on the ground, it was winding up for a crushing blow with its uninjured arm. TehLulz barely managed to roll out of the way but the attack still grazed him. The hit was strong enough to kill any unarmored human. The firesteel armor absorbed the brunt of the impact, when it reached the point where it would break, it instead bent inwards, shattering some of TehLulz' ribs. As the armor bent itself back to its original shape TehLulz cried out in pain.

Another fireball hit the ghoul, only this fireball was noticeably darker than the previous ones and its flames also seemed to be more eager to stay on the ghoul. The ghoul howled in surprise and tried putting out the fire that was undoubtedly hurting it but no matter what it did, the flames only climbed higher.

freeZe heard Shadow yell: "Get away from those flames, come to me!"

Fire roughly picked up TehLulz, he and the others scrambled towards Shadow whose runes started glowing. The flames on the ghoul had grown significantly and were now also starting to creep along the rock. When everyone had made it to Shadow, she projected a white barrier around the group. A few moments later the flames rapidly climbed up the staircase and washed over the shield. Shadow was heavily breathing, struggling to keep her barrier up with her dwindling energy supply.

The flames disappeared from one second to the other. The moment they did, Shadow collapsed on the stairs, the glowing ball disappeared at the same time as the barrier, freeZe managed to catch her mentor before her head hit the rock. Darkness enveloped them. A second later there was light again, this time it was Fire holding a torch up. The lifeless body of the ghoul way lying on the stairs in front of them, it didn't have any signs of burning.

Still heavily breathing Shadow opened her eyes: "Later. Whatever you may want to ask, I'll explain later. Let's just get to the damn train."

They all silently agreed. Fire carried his sister, Ambigious and Unchosen helped TehLulz walk the rest of the stairs. After hundreds and hundreds of steps down there was another door that swung open as they approached it. As they went through it they could see light at the end of the corridor, there were no undead to be seen.

freeZe was glad that they had made it down to the railway in one piece. She hoped that Fire's promise that this was the only dangerous part of their journey to Rockhaven would hold true.


	60. Chapter 59

Fire's body was hurting all over, the creeper's explosion had done a lot of internal and external damage. Shadow's healing spell had stopped the bleeding but that was it. Fire only felt his right side heart beating, the other two must have been destroyed by the explosion, and judging by the pain coming from the rest of his torso he assumed that a lot of his other organs had been destroyed as well. This wasn't immediately life threatening since his internal bleeding had been stopped. Mencur-Besh could survive as long as their respiratory system was intact and they had enough of the highly reactive substance commonly known as drandinian Heavybrew in their blood, which was normally the case with a well-nourished Mencur-Besh. If no silver was in play they could painfully live on for multiple days.

TehLulz' only injury seemed to be the impact he had sustained, the others had several smaller wounds and bruises, Shadow was completely drained and couldn't stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time, freeZe was the only one who was left completely unharmed.

The corridor they were in was the entrance to the railway station. The closer they got to the light the more they felt the temperature created by the glowstone lighting, it wasn't hot, just pleasantly warm. The railway station itself was rather plain aside from the usual engravings in the walls. On the tracks in the middle stood a locomotive painted in Mencur-Besh colors, in this case in the style of an Earth Mencur-Besh: black, white, green. Two wagons were coupled to it, a small one which carried the blaze powder that fueled the locomotive, behind it was a passenger wagon.

Fire said: "Ambigious, you and me will go operate the locomotive, everyone else just go to the other wagon. Unchosen, freeZe, take care of TehLulz and Shadow but don't use our potions if you don't have to, we might need them later on. When we reach Drandin we'll get potions there."

Fire helped TehLulz and Shadow into the passenger wagon. The inside of the wagon was very spacious since it was built to be comfortably used by both humans and Mencur-Besh. The seats had nether wool cushions on them that had patterns stitched onto them with different shades of green. Everyone took off their armor since they knew that there wouldn't be battle on the rails.

Fire and Ambigious then climbed into the cabin of the locomotive.

Ambigious said: "You know, as a child I always wanted to operate a steam locomotive."

Fire smiled. "Now you have your wish. This model is easy to operate, just make sure that the gauges don't go into the red and keep feeding it blaze powder and you'll be fine." Fire pointed to some gloves and an apron that was were hanging on a hook. "You should also probably wear those."

While Ambigious made himself familiar with the workings of the locomotive, Fire filled up the water tank from a reservoir and double checked the wheels, when he was satisfied he climbed back up to Ambigious.

Ambigious pointed to the different gauges. "From what I can see this one is water, this one is pressure and that one is speed. The buttons and levers are also pretty clear."

"I'll manage the start since these things can be a little bit stubborn when they haven't driven in a while, this particular one must have been sitting in this station for about five hundred years now. When everything gets going you can take over." Fire said.

Ambigious took a shovel that was formed like a spoon from a tool rack and started shoveling blaze powder into a funnel that lead to the burning chamber. Whenever the shovel touched the powder, sparks flew in all directions. When there was enough powder in the chamber Fire told Ambigious to stop. Fire then started rapidly turning a crank and then pushed a button, the powder in the chamber lit up. It took a few minutes for the water to boil, once Fire saw the pressure building up and heard the pistons moving he coupled the engine with the wheels. Very unwillingly they started turning, giving off some very concerning creaks, the locomotive started moving slowly and then faster once the mechanisms had decided to play along.

The train left the station at a respectable speed and entered the unlit tunnels, the train itself was equipped with glowstone lanterns so Ambigious and Fire could still see fine. Half a minute later the train reached a railway switch and transitioned over to the rails of the main rail line.

"The rails we are now on are gold plated, the redstone power needed to activate them comes from the locomotive itself. It's not turned on yet, we first need to let it run for a bit to bring it up to temperature." Fire explained.

Ambigious kept shoveling blaze powder down the funnel and the train sped up more as the pressure increased. After a few more minutes Fire turned to Ambigious again.

"I believe we have reached enough pressure, do the honors." He pointed to a small lever labeled "Redstone Signal".

Ambigious shouted: "Hell yeah!"

He flipped the lever. Fire heard the crackle of redstone and a moment later the train sped up by a large amount, Fire had been prepared for it but not Ambigious, he managed to hold onto a handle to keep himself from falling over. Once the acceleration had stopped and they were moving at a constant speed again Ambigious let go.

He pointed at a rope on the ceiling asked: "This is the whistle, right?"

He pulled on the rope and found out that it was indeed the whistle, a fairly deep whistle at that. The sound resonated far through the tunnels, Ambigious laughed.

* * *

Back in the passenger wagon Shadow had regained enough strength to sit up and talk but she still felt quite weak. They had used a row of seats as a makeshift bed for TehLulz, he was awake but his broken ribs forced him to take shallow breaths. Unchosen and freeZe were sitting next to Shadow.

Shadow said: "If you want to know anything about what you did earlier freeZe, you can ask now."

freeZe said: "Are you sure? You don't look that well."

"There isn't much energy down here for me to refill my reserves."

"Just take some of mine." freeZe offered.

Shadow sighed. "I actually wanted to ask you that but decided against it, but now that you brought it up yourself…"

Shadow opened her sense for energy and focused on freeZe, slowly she started drawing from her life force. The process wasn't painful but it seemed to cause freeZe noticeable discomfort.

"Just tell me when you want me to stop." Shadow said.

freeZe just gave her a thumbs up, Shadow continued. Her own energy pool was filled up within a couple of minutes, freeZe hadn't said anything.

Shadow said: "You do have a lot of life force, I can see why it's so hard to only use small amounts. When we arrive in Drandin I'll make sure to get life force storing gems for both of us, just in case."

freeZe asked: "So, now about whatever I did back there. What was that?"

"I assume that you tried combining Fire and Wither magic, in which you succeeded. I did notice you trying to cast Wither magic in the savannah but I didn't think much of it, after all we haven't really tested what other affinities besides Fire and Air you have."

"Yeah, makes sense. Why did the flames spread through the entire staircase though?"

Shadow explained: "The result of the combination of Fire and Wither is called a black flame. It has the most destructive properties of both Fire and Wither magic. What you get is a flame that is fueled by life force that still behaves like a normal flame. It can't be extinguished by water, the only thing that will make it stop is when it runs out of life force to burn or is contained in some form, by the shield I made for example."

freeZe said: "If that's not a weapon of mass destruction, I don't know what is."

Shadow nodded. "Exactly. If there were forbidden spells, which there aren't, this one would definitely be on the list. After it is set free it will burn out entire areas and kill every living thing it finds, including whoever created it. It is extremely dangerous so I recommend that you don't ever use it unless there is no other option." Shadow paused for a second and then continued: "If anyone asks you what your magical elements are, just leave out Wither."

freeZe asked: "Why?"

"If there is anything that people fear more than a pyromancer then it's a pyromancer who can create black flames, it's something even other mages are wary of. I'll still teach you how to properly use that combination of elements so that if you do use it you do it right."

freeZe looked over to TehLulz and asked: "Can you heal him a bit? Just so that he has an easier time breathing."

Shadow said: "I can do that." She hesitated and then asked: "You do have enough energy left to refill me another time, right? Just so I know just how much I should spend on the spell."

freeZe nodded, that was enough for Shadow. She raised her hands above her wounded friend and let her magic run its course. She felt once again how draining it really was to cast healing magic. Setting bones back into place was so much harder than breaking them. When she was done TehLulz sat up and took a deep breath.

He said: "Thanks."

Shadow was glad that she was able to help him. The train ride to Drandin would still take quite a while and she wasn't sure how bad his internal bleeding had been. She let herself fall back into her seat and closed her eyes, even if the ride was long, it for sure would be quiet, apart from the rhythmic stomping of the locomotive.


	61. Chapter 60

TehLulz was woken up by the train slowing down. As he sat up he groaned, his chest was still hurting where the ghoul had grazed him. He looked out the window, he only saw the wall of the tunnel.

He turned to the others and asked: "How long did I sleep?"

Shadow answered: "A couple of hours, Drandin is a long way from our base. We just left the gold plated rails, right now we are in the tunnel that leads to the Drandin station. We'll arrive in a couple of minutes."

Unchosen asked: "They have healing potions there, right?"

Shadow nodded.

A few moments later she said: "There is something important I need to tell you. Here in Drandin you can openly speak about our mission or Mencur-Besh affairs, it's one of the few places where you can. Everywhere else, just keep quiet about it."

TehLulz said: "Got it. What about people with an Eye-and-Claws mark, they are allies of the Mencur-Besh. Can we talk to them about those things when we meet them outside of Drandin?"

Shadow explained: "Not all marks are equal, there is a system. People who are more trusted get marks with higher ranks, the highest rank is for drandinians and a few other select people, like us. When you touch someone with a lower ranking mark you will feel where they are in the hierarchy and you will also know what you are allowed to talk about. Do not mention your rank to anyone below you. However since you do have the highest ranking mark you have some degree of freedom with this, just know that you are directly responsible for anything you do outside of the guidelines."

"That's good to keep in mind." Unchosen said.

TehLulz looked out of the window again, the tunnel had gotten brighter, he assumed that the light came from the station. The train slowed down further as it arrived. The Drandin station looked much like the one they had departed from in design but it was much bigger. The train approached the first of the four platforms, there were already a couple of humans and Mencur-Besh on the platform.

freeZe asked: "What are they doing here?"

Shadow answered: "Waiting for us, they knew we would arrive around this time. Looks like they already have the potions with them."

The humans and Mencur-Besh all wore clothes that seemed to be made from grey nether wool, the clothes had numerous pockets and loops. Some of the people were carrying tools, probably to maintain the train. A man was holding a tray with several bright red potions.

As they got out of the train a blue eyed Mencur-Besh greeted them. "It's good that you made it here. Fire already told us about your run-in with that ghoul."

Unchosen, TehLulz and freeZe gave Shadow some questioning looks.

"Later." She just said. She then turned to the Mencur-Besh and said: "It's good to see you too, Stream."

Fire and Ambigious climbed down from the locomotive and joined the group, Ambigious with a very content look on his face.

He said with audible pride: "I drove the train the entire way."

Fire added: "And he did quite a good job with the arrival."

The man with the potions approached them and gave a small flask to everyone and a bigger flask to Fire. freeZe declined since she wasn't wounded.

He said: "I assume that you haven't had one of these potions before, so just a warning, it's going to hurt when you drink them."

Ambigious asked: "Why?"

Unchosen answered instead of the man: "If you want healing potions that don't spoil within a few hours you have to use a different recipe. The side effect is that the potion will release all of the pain the wounds would have caused within a few seconds. There is another recipe that prevents this but that one needs a fresh human heart so it's out of the question most of the time."

TehLulz laughed. "Thanks for the information."

Before he drank his potion TehLulz sat down onto the polished rock floor and he was glad he did the moment the potion started its work. The pain was excoriating, it would have made him fall over had he not sat down. But before he had the chance to scream, it was already over.

He slowly got up and stretched. "Okay… that was something else."

Apart from the memory of the pain, TehLulz felt great, his ribs were exactly where they were supposed to be and any other minor injury he had before was now gone.

After everyone else had used their potion they followed the blue-eyed Mencur-Besh to the exit, the rest of their welcoming party went to work on the train. After walking down a corridor they arrived at an elevator, which was more or less a cage on chains.

Ambigious asked Stream: "No magical elevators?"

Stream explained: "No, here in Drandin we try to keep everything as free of magic as possible, magical things tend to fail in the depths."

They stepped into the spacious cage and Stream pulled a lever. The elevator started moving upwards and gradually accelerated.

TehLulz looked upwards and saw a small speck of light at the end of the shaft.

He asked: "How deep are we?"

This time Fire replied: "About four kilometers, the mountain Drandin is located in are quite high." He added: "This did cause some problems with building an elevator, we had to use very loosely woven firesteel so the chains don't collapse from their own weight. The first ones did."

Stream added: "A lot of what we do is built on trial and error, the Ascension Project is one of the best examples."

TehLulz said: "Shadow told us a bit about it. I know that a lot of people died for it but what happened to those who survived?"

Stream answered: "With some the ritual didn't have any effect, they just went back to what they did before, after some intensive care from our healers. Then there were some where unintended but still interesting effects occurred. We discovered that if the potion is made with the blood of a Wither Mencur-Besh you'll have permanent pulsating black runes all over your skin but you'll be completely immune to magic. Apart from that there wasn't much else that is worth recreating."

"How many of those magic immune people are out there?"

"Two, anonymized as subjects 89 and 93. The former is from when we discovered the effect, the latter was an unaffiliated person who acted as a control group of sorts."

Not much was said until the elevator reached the surface. They were inside of a building that housed the redstone machinery used to operate the elevator. As he exited the building the first thing TehLulz noticed was the fog, it was difficult to make out anything that was more than a couple of meters away. The second thing he noticed was the noise, a rhythmic stomping and hissing accompanied by the clinking of metal.

He asked: "What's that?"

Fire explained: "That's what poets call the song of Drandin. It comes from the large central steam engine that's driven by the heat of the ore smelters and from the nearby smithies."

Ambigious said: "That explains the fog."

Shadow added: "The fog is also what keeps Drandin hidden, that and the hostility of the surrounding wilderness, the steep mountainsides also help."

Stream said: "I've already assigned you a house, let me bring you there."

* * *

If Drandin was one thing, it was loud. The constant noise of the central engine combined with the sounds of metalworking created a strangely musical backdrop to the foggy town.

As they walked through the streets of Drandin TehLulz noticed that the houses were largely identical. Something about the building style reminded him of Fire's base, simple yet oddly ornate, he also noted that none of the doors had locks. The drandinians all wore the same grey nether wool clothing. Each house had a smithy facing the street next to it, a lot of them were being operated. Many different metal objects were being made, ranging from something as mundane as nails up to weaponry and armor.

Stream led them to one of the houses, opened the door and said: "This one is yours until you continue on your journey. Feel free to join me and some of the others in the meal hall later."

They went inside and as soon as the door closed there was silence. None of the noises from outside got in through the walls.

freeZe asked: "So… what now?"

Shadow said: "We get new clothes and then we'll go eat at the hall."

TehLulz was still overwhelmed by the sudden flood of new impressions and information and he imagined that his friends felt the same. At the same time his stomach rumbled and reminded him that it had been a long time since he had last eaten something.


	62. Chapter 61

Fire stepped out of the house, the sounds of Drandin once again surrounded him. He and the others had put on the grey nether wool clothes that all drandinians wore, freeZe and Shadow were still wearing their black robes since they hadn't been damaged in the fight.

Drandin was located in a crater-like valley on a mountain peak, the meal hall was near the mineshaft in its center, which was where they were headed now. The excess heat produced by the central engine was also what was used for cooking, nothing was wasted in Drandin.

Shadow looked around and chuckled. "Wodahs seems to be off to somewhere. She really loves Drandin."

freeZe said: "It's not like anyone would notice that you lack a shadow with all of this fog around. I don't think that anyone here would care either."

Shadow replied: "Correct."

They made their way down the streets of Drandin in silence, the closer to the central mineshaft they got the thicker the fog was. The streets near the center had glowstone pieces in them so that you wouldn't accidentally leave them. The stomping and hissing of the steam engine was the predominant sound, the metalworking noises were drowned out by the fog.

Ambigious asked: "Who else will be at the meal hall?"

Fire replied: "A lot of people, I only know that Stream will be there, we'll sit down at a table with her and a few others."

Ambigious said: "Hmm… on that note, how do you know if you are talking to a male or female Mencur-Besh? If Stream is any indication, both look pretty much the same."

"If you aren't a Mencur-Besh yourself, you don't."

"That will get confusing really quickly though."

Fire explained: "If there is an occasion where lots of humans and Mencur-Besh are in one place outside of Drandin we wear face paint, if you know what the different colors and patterns mean you can find out a lot about a Mencur-Besh by just looking at them. If there is no face paint, just refer to them by name. Or just ask if you really need to know, the question is expected."

Ambigious nodded. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind."

When they reached the meal hall the fog was at its densest, everything had some form of glowstone indicator to stop people from bumping into walls. The entrance door to the hall itself was artfully ornamented with glowing lines that all gravitated towards the door handle.

The inside of the meal hall was free of fog and noise, the hall itself was an expansive stone building. The support beams and the rest of the wood in the interior were blueish-grey. On the far end of the hall was something that looked like a bar, dozens of humans and Mencur-Besh were lined up to get today's meal. Next to the food, drinks were served.

Unchosen asked: "That's steelwood, right? I thought all of it was gone."

Shadow explained: "This was built before the quake that made the caverns collapse."

Fire showed them the way to the table where Stream was sitting, to her left was a green-eyed Mencur-Besh, to her right was a man.

The earth Mencur-Besh was even taller and a lot bulkier than other kinds of Mencur-Besh, towering an additional meter above the others and requiring twice the space on the bench.

Even next to such a behemoth the man was a sight to behold, his head and face were covered in scars, so many that in some spots they had entirely driven out his brown hair and beard. The man's left eye was gone, in its place a blue gem sat in his eye socket, his healthy eye was unnaturally dark. His right hand was also missing, replaced by a spiked hook. He wore the usual grey clothes but his right foot was clad in runic steel armor.

freeZe looked to Fire questioningly.

Fire said: "Yes, that's him."

The man got up from the cushioned bench and walked up to greet them. He said in a rumbling voice: "Fire! Good to see you."

Fire replied: "Good to see you too Andras." After a slight pause Fire looked to freeZe, then back to Andras and said: "You have a fan."

freeZe slowly said: "I read your books about monsters."

Andras walked up to her and roughly pat her on the back. He simply said: "Good."

They all sat down at the table, the earth Mencur-Besh called Dust had picked up meals for all of them in the meantime. Today's meal consisted of a hearty meat stew.

Dust had an even deeper voice than Andras. If mountains could talk, this would be how they sounded. Dust said: "We got a delivery of meat from overseas a few days ago, half of it was preserved and half of it is being used right now."

Between bites TehLulz asked: "How do supplies get here?"

Dust explained: "Usually by train, more recently by airship."

"I didn't know you had airships, I read nothing about those in the history books."

Stream said: "That's because they are a recent invention and they are still in development. They are one of the major Eye-and-Claws projects right now, the other one being a bedrock-breaking drill."

Fire interrupted: "On that topic, how is the drill coming along?"

Stream said: "Slowly, but it definitely is coming along. We finally figured out the right mixture and crystallization method, the prototype could already make scratches. Now we just need a bigger one, much bigger. It should be ready in a couple of weeks if everything goes according to plan."

Shadow asked: "What about the shielding? Do you have a way to make a permanent barrier to keep the Void from devouring everything?"

"One of our Rockhaven contacts said that there are a group of mages in the Mage Guild who could project such a barrier, they can work together with our own mages. We just need to make sure they are trustworthy."

In the meantime freeZe was talking to Andras. She asked: "What's with your eye?"

Andras laughed. "Oh, this? That's a funny story. So one day someone contracted me with getting the crown of some old-era king that was buried in some desert. Getting there was easy enough but that tomb of his was something else. I would describe the amount of traps as paranoid but not even that is enough. I was careful so I made it to the burial chamber without a scratch. The chamber itself was worse than the rest of the damn tomb, makes me wonder how they actually managed to place that king in there. So, after I opened the sarcophagus there was one last trap. That way I ended up with a hooked bolt in my eye and the crown in my hands. Now, I couldn't leave that bolt in my skull, might be poisoned. So I yanked it out, along with my eye."

freeZe cringed at the thought.

Andras continued: "So I was sitting there with only one eye and not a lot of options. I got up and looked at the dead king again, then I noticed the gem in his eye socket. Smashed his skull and put the gem where my own eye used to be, my thought back then was to just plug the wound with something that fit. Turns out that that gem was enchanted, I got my sight back, or something close to it. My left eye was still blind in the regular sense but I could see magic stuff with it now, you can imagine how useful that is for an artefact hunter. Depth perception against mundane things is gone but that's nothing a lot of experience can't replace."

freeZe asked: "Have you ever thought about using magic or potions to heal yourself?"

Andras said: "Even if I tried it wouldn't work, I got a couple too many curses in me. That and Tursnak wouldn't like it."

"Who's that?"

"Who's that?" Andras laughed. "The best demon in the history of demons, that's who that is. He used to live in a set of armor but ended up replacing my leg."

He knocked against the runic armor on his right leg, it rang hollow.

Ambigious interrupted: "How can you talk about those things when there is this masterpiece of a stew right in front of you on the table?"

Andras laughed. "I like your brother."

After they all had eaten their stew, Dust brought over a variety of bottles.

Unchosen asked: "What's in those?"

Andras said: "Another reason to live in Drandin."

Shadow took one of the bottles and said to Ambigious: "I'm pretty sure you'll like this one."

The liquid in the bottle was glowing bright green and smelled sweetly.

Fire explained: "That's glowing wine, it's made by mixing water and Shineroot essence with Heavybrew. Shineroot essence is normally a deadly poison but the Brew neutralizes it and amplifies its glow. Take care, it's strong."

Ambigious carefully took a sip and then made a surprised look. "It's good." He said.

They spent hours sitting at that table, drinking and exchanging tales, by the end of it everyone was drunk, save for Shadow and the Mencur-Besh. Andras proposed to go down into the mineshaft to kill some depth monsters and Ambigious, Unchosen, TehLulz and even freeZe fervently agreed. Fortunately Fire managed to dissuade them, after another round of drinks they instead decided to just go to their respective homes.

Fire and Dust carried the very drunk humans to their home while Stream made sure that Andras didn't go through with his plan, she said that she was used to it at this point. When they arrived at the house, they put everyone in their beds, Fire thanked Dust for the assistance and then went to sleep himself. They would stay in Drandin for a few more days before continuing to Rockhaven.


	63. Chapter 62

It was hard to tell day and night apart in Drandin, there were always roughly the same amount of people in the streets and due to the use of glowstone and the fog you also couldn't tell by the light. There were always miners bringing up new resources, the furnaces and the steam engine ran around the clock, nothing ever stopped. The only way to tell time in Drandin accurately were pocket watches and a central clock that was used to keep track of time in the world outside Drandin. Drandin was entirely self-sufficient, the deliveries from the outside significantly raised the living quality in the city but were ultimately expendable. However a lot of people and towns all over the server depended on regular deliveries of metal, diamonds or beverages from Drandin. The money they paid went directly into whatever the current Eye-and-Claws projects were, whether that was technological advancement, the bribing of key figures or something else entirely.

Due to the timeless nature of Drandin everyone went at their own pace, or in Fire's case, the pace of his friends' sleep cycles. He waited for TehLulz specifically since he wanted to show him something as a part of his enchanting training. He was sure that Shadow would train with freeZe. Ambigious and Unchosen were free to do whatever they wanted but he encouraged them to visit Andras to learn more about what was ahead of them.

Fire left the house with TehLulz and started walking in the opposite direction of where they went the day before.

TehLulz asked: "Where are we going?"

Fire said: "There is a tower on the edge of the crater that I would like to show you. I once told you that you need to learn to understand enchantments made by others, there is something in that tower where you can try."

The road they were on quickly turned into a narrower but still well paved path as they walked away from the settlement. There was still a lot of room for expansion in the valley. The path kept getting steeper and eventually turned into a staircase that snaked its way up the progressively more vertical mountain.

Fire had no problems with the fog and could still see just fine, TehLulz could barely see his hand in front of his eyes and very quickly took to climbing the stairs on all fours so that he wouldn't trip. After half an hour of climbing they had reached the top. Behind them was a steep rock wall which led into the valley, in front of them was another rock wall, even steeper and far taller. A cold wind was blowing.

Fire pointed in the direction of the path and said: "The tower is just over there."

As they continued along the path, the tower slowly came into sight. It was made from shining white quartz, which made it almost impossible to see against the fog. It was hard to make out how tall the tower really was. Fire opened the entrance door and TehLulz followed.

TehLulz said: "Great, more stairs."

They made their way up the spiral staircase, it was hard to tell how far up they had gone since there were no windows anywhere on the staircase. When they arrived at the top of the tower they were on a platform under a dome, which was held up by several pillars. There were no walls and the bitter cold wind blew strong, the only thing that could prevent them from falling off was the quartz railing that surrounded the platform. Above them was the clear blue sky, below them they could see the fog flowing down the mountainside.

Fire said: "Welcome to the highest point on the server."

TehLulz looked around, his eyes getting used to the bright sunlight. He pointed into the distance. "What's that over there?"

There was a building far off on the other side of the valley, only barely poking out of the fog.

Fire explained: "That's the airship port." After a short pause he said: "Now, what we really came here for is above us."

As TehLulz looked up he saw a large eye floating in the dome, it looked like an ender eye, only much bigger. The eye stared out in all directions at the same time and pulsated with energy.

Fire said: "What you see here is the reason for the Mencur-Besh's success. This eye enables us to establish mental links over longer distances. There is a whole network of those eyes out there, most of them are well hidden near points of interest. Only two are in cities, one here and one in Rockhaven."

TehLulz said: "Okay, that explains some things. Like the people in the train station knowing our arrival time."

"Exactly, you can imagine how powerful such a network is, it allows us to have a communication advantage at all times. This also allows us to react in case something happens that requires our immediate attention. One time a lich lord spawned and made its way to the surface where it proceeded to raise an army of powerful undead. We were there to bring it down before it could reach any towns."

TehLulz asked: "Now, there was something about enchantments, right?"

Fire nodded. "Yes. It is obvious that this eye holds a powerful enchantment. Now what I want you to do is to is to enter an enchantment trance and try to read the enchantment."

"Is that safe?"

"Yes, enchanting is different from magic in that you can poke around in the inner workings of a spell without being harmed. Of course, the eye is also enchanted to prevent tampering but only for those that don't have an Eye-and-Claws mark."

TehLulz gave Fire thumbs up. "Got it."

TehLulz sat down on the ground below the eye and closed his eyes. He was glad that he had was wearing the clothes he was, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to sit down on the almost frozen floor and much less stay there with the wind chilling him further.

His thoughts stood still for a moment and then resonated with the enchanted eye above him. The enchantment was incredibly complex, thousands of runes were aligned in seemingly nonsensical positions. TehLulz knew what most of them meant but some were new to him, he assumed that those were either ancient and not used in enchantments anymore or that they were created for this enchantment. He knew that runes that were created specifically for an enchantment were rare since the process was very difficult but they made their enchantment extremely powerful. It was almost impossible to determine what anything meant, not until he found a pattern to use to read the enchantment.

He said: "There is a lot in there but I don't really have a point to start from. Also, there are some runes I don't know. It's really complex."

Fire answered: "I'll give you a hint. I'll show you the keystone rune, maybe you can go from there. You may also be able to determine the meaning of some runes by their shape and what they're connected to."

Fire started humming, one of the small runes before TehLulz' mental eye started glowing.

He asked: "That one's the keystone? Really?"

As TehLulz examined the rune more closely he suddenly understood why this specific one was so important. It was a rune that resembled the Eye-and-Claws mark, it stood for Mencur-Besh. Now that he had identified the keystone the fine lines binding the runes together became more apparent as he gained somewhat of an understanding of the enchantment. From there on the structure was nothing he hadn't seen before, only much bigger and more complex. The Mencur-Besh rune was linked to a rune that stood for connection, one that stood for distance and one for Ender. It branched out from there.

"I see it now." He said. "Once I got past the fact that linked runes aren't grouped it's easy to read."

Fire just nodded.

After sitting there and looking at the runes for some time, TehLulz slowly gained an understanding of how the Mencur-Besh network operated. It wasn't very different from how computers outside of the server communicated. He also discovered the existence of a joined memory that was shared across the entire network. Fire had once talked about something like it. Once he was done he stood up and stretched, the cold and the sitting had made his muscles stiff.

Fire asked: "Do you understand it now?"

TehLulz answered: "Yes, it's fascinating."

"I hope that you also understand why it is so important that the network remains undisturbed. There is one weak point in the network though, can you imagine where?"

Fire started going down the stairs again, TehLulz followed while thinking.

He said: "Hmm… the only way to access it is by either being a Mencur-Besh or by manipulating one of the eyes. There is only one other eye in an exposed locating, that would be the one in Rockhaven. Am I right about that?"

Fire answered: "Precisely. That is why there is someone assigned to guard the Rockhaven eye from any tampering, the person holding that position is called the tower keeper. They are elected from one of the guilds in Rockhaven, usually they are Eye-and-Claws but not always. We do try to nudge the vote to ensure we have someone trustworthy in the position."

TehLulz asked: "Would that mean that they if they are Eye-and-Claws they have the highest ranking mark?"

Fire explained: "No. And there is the problem. The election of the tower keeper is a tradition in Rockhaven, their duty is to ensure the eye is in good condition and that nobody harms it. While we can try to get Eye-and-Claws into the keeper position, ensuring that specific people get into the position is nigh-impossible. Most tower keepers don't even know what the eye is, they just guard it."

TehLulz muttered: "Oh, I can see how that is a problem."

Fire said: "The keepers themselves aren't the main risk here. While Rockhaven is officially under human rule, we do still pull a lot of strings there. The king can do as he pleases but he is inclined to listen to us since we have proven to be valuable allies. However, there are a couple of people that would rather see Rockhaven without Mencur-Besh, those are the real danger."

"It sounds like you have a few specific people in mind."

"Not really, I hired some expensive mercenaries to do some spy work and they found out that there definitely is a dynamic there, a conspiracy of sorts. The worst part is that we don't know who is part of it, we don't know if there are moles in the Eye-and-Claws, if there are that would be a first."

TehLulz said: "We are going to Rockhaven anyways. Maybe we can investigate."

Fire shook his head. "No, we are there for just the Axe. While shattering a conspiracy certainly sounds exciting, the Ban Hammer has priority."

TehLulz asked: "That's fair enough but I still don't entirely understand, the eye might be a weak point but what could those people do that endangers the Mencur-Besh?"

Fire went ahead down the stairs, while walking he explained: "You see, poking around in the enchantments of the eye is harmless for all involved parties. The problem is when someone actually tries to link their own mind into the network, which definitely is possible under some circumstances for Ender or Life mages. The only way for a human mind to be able to safely join the collective is through a slow process of attunement, which is how I can access it. Technically Shadow can access the network too but that's its own can of worms. If someone were to just hook themselves into the network it could cause unforeseen consequences, at the very least it would kill the one who tries. This is why interacting with the eyes at all is forbidden by the contract you need to sign to join the server."

They walked the rest of the way back down to Drandin in silence, a lot of time had passed while they were in the tower and it was time to go to the meal hall again. They would depart to Rockhaven in two days.


	64. Chapter 63

Ambigious was woken up by Fire shouting something about change of plans and departing immediately. He groaned. He hadn't stayed up long the day before but it was still a pity to leave the comfortable bed he was in.

As he went down the stairs to the ground floor he saw that everyone else was ready to go already, luckily he didn't have many things he needed to grab before he was ready. After they had breakfast in the meal hall they followed Fire through the fog.

As they passed by the elevator building Ambigious asked: "Aren't we taking the train?"

Fire said: "No, I managed to arrange something different for us. A new airship prototype was just completed yesterday, we'll use it to get to Rockhaven quickly."

Ambigious asked: "It won't crash or anything, right?"

Fire answered: "Most likely not. We are past the part of airship development where we have to worry about fatal malfunctions. Now we are trying to make them faster, bigger and more efficient. This prototype is a step towards that direction, it's the first airship that can carry more than two people without having to move at a snail's pace."

The road they were walking on was quite populated, people were transporting resources in the direction of the airship port. The resources were mostly wood or different metals but there were also people with carts of redstone, glowstone dust or blaze powder.

TehLulz asked Unchosen: "How was the visit at Andras'?"

"It was interesting. He told us a bunch about his previous adventures and the creatures he encountered there, some of it might come in handy. Then there was the incident where Wodahs slid in under the door and started talking to Andras' demon leg armor, it was weird."

Shadow laughed: "I wondered where she went, seems like she found a friend in Tursnak. She really enjoys not having to follow me all the time."

As soon as the road left Drandin it wound its way up the valley in serpentines, it still wasn't very steep since it was a transport road. At the top there were the entrances to the airship port, one entrance to the workshop and one to the boarding area.

The boarding area was similar to the one of the train station, only a bit smaller. Currently there were five airships docked, four small ones and a big one. They were made entirely from firesteel and shared the same structure. The airships consisted of a gondola with an oval firesteel balloon above it, connected by several rods. Glass panes filled the gaps between the rods, forming a cabin. In the back of the airships were large propellers which would provide the necessary forward propulsion. The small ones had two seats behind a console, there were pipes going up to the balloon from the console. The big airship had a much larger passenger cabin with a glass floor and a separated cabin for the pilot, which was made from glass entirely.

One of the human airship engineers approached them, he said: "Hello, good to see you."

His voice seemed familiar to Ambigious, soft with a bit of a scratch. He asked: "Weren't you the one who came to get us in the quarry? Brad, right?"

This was the first time Ambigious had seen Brad's face, in the quarry it had been covered by his diamond helmet. Brad had short blond hair, blue eyes and a short beard.

"Yes, indeed. I'm glad all of you made it here." Brad said.

Ambigious went to shake Brad's hand, as he did he once again felt the resonance of his Eye-and-Claws mark, he still had to get used to meeting people who had it.

Ambigious asked: "So, you work on the airships here?"

Brad nodded. "Yes, I generally work on anything that requires mechanical expertise like maintaining the central engine. The reason I specifically work on the airship project is because I'm also an alchemist. To make them actually float you need to get the mixture of glowstone, redstone and blaze powder just right. Otherwise it either doesn't float, it floats too much or it melts the balloon."

"So, this is the first flight of this one, right?" Ambigious asked.

"I have flown it in the workshop yesterday but not yet out there, I don't think it'll perform much differently. It took a long time to make the whole construct light enough to fly, that and of course the mixture had to be changed a bit. I'll also be your pilot today. I'll set you down near Rockhaven and fly it back here."

The cabin was quite spacious, the seats were large and cushioned, not as much as the seats in the train but still very comfortable. After they all boarded the airship, Brad climbed into his pilot cabin, the chains holding the airship in place were released and it floated on the spot.

After Brad was done checking everything, the propeller in the back slowly started moving, driving the airship out of the port. All of a sudden there was just the seemingly endless fog below them.

TehLulz looked down and said: "That's spooky."

Ambigious saw Brad pull a lever and felt how the airship rose up further into the sky. The view was incredible, at the edge of the fog he could see woods on one side and a desert on the other. Now that they were in the open sky the propeller ran at full speed, Ambigious figured that they were moving quite quickly but couldn't confirm it since the ground below them was still covered in fog.

After a bit of time had passed Fire said: "I am a Rockhaven citizen, so is Shadow. You four are not, which means that under normal circumstances you aren't allowed in without a long procedure. We have ways to circumvent that. You'll have to do a bit of acting."

Shadow continued: "Thinking of a cover story for freeZe was easy, the apprentices of citizens are allowed free passage into the city. For you three it's a bit harder. I had the thought that you three and Fire are people I hired to protect me and my apprentice during our travels. Naturally you three are Fire's apprentices, that way everybody is able to get in."

Unchosen asked: "So, we just have to think of plausible mercenary backstories, right?"

Shadow nodded. "Exactly, make up some of your past jobs and you'll be fine. That and don't mention that Fire is my brother, that'll only create more questions. Once you are inside Rockhaven nobody really asks any questions."

Ambigious asked: "How is the security in Rockhaven?"

Fire explained: "There is exactly one active entrance to the city, which is the main gate, everything that goes in and out of the city needs to pass through there. The walls can't be destroyed by anything except highly enchanted diamond pickaxes and even then it would take a while."

"What are the walls made from?" Ambigious asked.

Fire extended the claw on his right index finger and said: "From the same material as my claws, people have taken to calling it 'artificial bedrock'. Rockhaven was built by the Mencur-Besh very early on. With enough magic we can grow this material into any shape we want, the entire Mencur-Besh population was involved in the construction. Although it turns out that humans don't take kindly to mysterious, powerful creatures building a fortress with unknown purpose in the span of a few months. We had to abandon it, it stood empty for years until a couple of humans decided to claim it for themselves and call it Rockhaven."

Shadow continued: "The political system in Rockhaven is quite interesting. Every resident is part of some kind of guild, there are of course guilds for the supernatural crafts but there is also the Weaver Guild for example. Each guild elects a leader who then maintains this positon until they die or retire, even if they have the ability to respawn. Each guild also has a representative at the royal court. The ruler is protected by the Royal Guard, which is somewhat like a guild in structure, the Guard captain is elected with the same system. The Guard is an extremely elite unit, they are the best equipped fighting force on the entire server, excluding the Mencur-Besh and Drandin of course."

freeZe asked: "I assume that the ruler is elected similarly to the guild leaders."

"Not entirely, only the guild representatives in the court can ever be chosen to be the next ruler, usually though the ruler is from one of the supernatural guilds or from the Guard since those are the most powerful and most influential parties in Rockhaven. The current king was elected about a hundred years ago, he used to be the captain of the Guard."

Ambigious asked: "What if there is some kind of coup?"

This time Fire answered: "That's where the Eye-and-Claws come in. While we don't have much official power in Rockhaven, we can still make a lot of things happen. We try to keep the peace as much as we can, we aren't interested in infighting and war. In case of a coup or any kind of foul play during the elections, a special rule comes into action, all representatives are returned to their respective guild and new ones are elected, then from those a new ruler is chosen. It has never come any further than this but if it did, the Eye-and-Claws would seize control of the city and reestablish order until things calm down, then a new court is elected and everything returns to its normal state."

TehLulz said: "It makes sense, you don't want to lose control over that eye…"

They were interrupted by Brad: "Hold on tight, I believe there is some turbulence coming up. Time to test what this baby can really do."

They could barely really grip their seats before the airship started jumping and shaking in the wind. The ride to Rockhaven wasn't going to be as smooth as they had hoped.


	65. Chapter 64

Shadow looked ahead of the airship, there was a front of dark storm clouds shortly ahead of them, occasionally lit up by lightning arcing inside the clouds and striking the ground below. The airship was already being thrown around by gusts of wind, Brad tried his best to keep it steady. Even with all the wind and lightning, it was oddly quiet inside the airship, outside sounds were muffled by the glass.

Brad yelled: "I can't change course, we'll have to go through the clouds. As long as this isn't a magical storm from the Witch's Cauldron we should be fine."

Shadow felt out for any magical anomalies nearby. She was relieved to see that this was just a regular storm.

Fire instructed everyone to strap themselves to the seats with the provided belts. They were glad they did, the next turbulence would have sent them flying out of their seats into the ceiling.

Ambigious asked: "We'll be safe, right? In case this thing goes down you'll be able to do some magic stuff, right?"

Shadow nodded. "I'll probably be able to brake a fall to the point where it won't be fatal. Assuming nothing happens to us before that."

Ambigious gave her a grim look but said nothing.

They were now inside the storm clouds, lightning was arcing all around them and they were being thrown about even more.

Brad muttered: "Note to self, find a way to make the next airship more stable."

Fire yelled: "Secondary balloons and a redstone gyroscope maybe?"

Brad replied: "Good idea. We'll have to find a way to make it autonomous though. I know a master circuit maker living in Treetop, she could come up with something if I asked."

freeZe interjected: "Are you two seriously discussing airship design right now?"

"Yes."

A moment later a lightning bolt struck the firesteel balloon, it sent vibrations through the entire airship and left everyone with ringing ears. At the same time the airship was violently lifted upwards, pushing them into their seats. One of the gauges on Brad's console exploded.

Unchosen asked: "What the hell is going on?"

Brad's hands were flying all over his console trying to regain control over the airship and stop it from rising. Then he suddenly stopped and slowly said: "Why didn't we think of that? Of course the mixture in the balloon won't respond well to lightning."

"What?" freeZe asked.

Fire now also seemed to understand, he explained: "The lift created by the mixture is controlled by a redstone current of varying strength. The lightning strike supercharged the redstone and now we're rising. Add redstone overflow capacitors to the list of additions."

One advantage of being lifted so quickly was that the airship was otherwise stable, Shadow saw how Brad investigated the damage done by the power surge, it seemed that everything except that one gauge was still intact.

As they rose up more lightning struck the balloon, which was pulling them even faster, after the third strike the balloon started glowing red. Shadow contemplated magically cooling it down but then decided against it since she didn't know what other effects that might have.

In the next few minutes the lightning strikes thinned out as they came closer to the top of the storm clouds, eventually they broke through and were above the storm. The airship was still rising at a high speed.

TehLulz asked: "So, what now?"

Fire answered: "We wait. Eventually the balloon will cool down and we'll sink again. That will take some time though. Until then we'll just keep rising."

"Won't there be a problem with the air getting thin?" TehLulz asked.

Just the moment TehLulz spoke the airship slowed down, a few minutes later they were at a stable altitude again.

Brad said: "I guess we reached the maximum height this thing can lift us to. Now we'll just have to wait until the balloon cools down enough that it responds to my redstone signal again."

Shadow took a look out the windows. The view was breathtaking, they were so high up that even the storm below them looked small. Multiple biomes were in her field of view. She could see Drandin off in the distance, even further away on the opposite side she could see the black, shimmering walls of Rockhaven.

Her observations were interrupted by Ambigious. "So, does anyone have a set of cards so that we have something to do while waiting for this thing to cool down?"

Shadow just smiled and shook several freshly projected cards out of her sleeves.

* * *

The group spent hours high above the world, playing cards and watching the red glow of the balloon slowly die down. Even Brad had climbed out of his cabin and joined them. He had roughly calculated the time it would take for the mixture to return to operating temperature and it wouldn't be long until that happened.

After another game of cards had been concluded with Unchosen as the winner, Ambigious asked Fire: "So… I have been wondering about this for some time now. And I'm thinking it's the last opportunity to ask before we have to go roleplay."

Fire turned to him. "Hm?"

"How do Mencur-Besh… err… reproduce?"

The question provoked several chuckles from the group but Fire answered the question like any other: "Magically, for the most part. Though a Mencur-Besh embryo is created how you would expect, the Mencur-Besh body structure makes a humanlike pregnancy impossible. The embryo is born after only a few days. Reproduction takes place in incubation caves deep underground, in those caves the embryo grows up in a capsule made from artificial bedrock suspended in Heavybrew. It must be fed life force regularly or it will die, there are always several Mencur-Besh in those caves taking care of the offspring. It takes about fifty years for an embryo to mature, they grow straight into an adult. After they have matured, the lid of the capsule is removed. The new Mencur-Besh then establishes their connection to the network, from there they gain all their skills and knowledge. Afterwards they leave the cave and do whatever they need to."

"Wow." Ambigious said. "I get now why you can't go to war with the humans. You can't replenish your numbers at all."

Fire nodded. "Exactly."

freeZe asked: "What determines the element of the offspring?"

Fire said: "Chance, mostly. Mencur-Besh DNA has the required genes for all of the elements and one takes priority. You can of course increase the chance of a certain element developing by channeling it into the capsule along with the raw life force."

Just as freeZe was about to ask another question, a jolt went through the airship as it started sinking.

Brad announced: "Looks like we're ready to go again, time to take this baby down."

The airship started sinking at a rapid rate, the storm had long gone away. Brad had used the rear propeller to steer the airship closer to Rockhaven while they had been height-locked so that he would only have to take it down vertically. It took about an hour to bring the airship down to ground level, Brad gently set it down in a clearing of a forest.

Shadow opened the door and stepped out first. It was good for her to have solid ground under her feet again, naturally she trusted Brad as a pilot and engineer but she just liked staying on the ground better. She had liberally used flight spells in the past but perhaps she had grown tired of them.

Brad stepped out last and took a quick look at the airship. "The balloon seems to be fine but the redstone pipes haven't taken kindly to the shock therapy. They'll still be enough to get me home but we'll have to make some serious changes in the next version."

Fire said: "Thanks for flying us Brad."

Brad climbed back into the airship and said: "No problem."

Fire pointed forward. "Rockhaven is about an hour's march in that direction, we should get going, the sun is setting and we don't want to be caught out at night." With a smile he added: "Don't forget to play your roles when we arrive at the gate."


	66. Chapter 65

Phoebe's skull felt like it was going to explode. She was lying on a bed, curled up in a ball and holding her head with both hands. It had started after she exited the joined mind she had used with Sarah to transfer the memories, it was as if her brain realized that there were new memories in her mind that absolutely did not belong there. It started off as minor discomfort, then turned into a headache and now it was a pain that Phoebe was unable to describe, partially because she found it hard to form any thoughts at all.

A lot of the new memories contradicted existing ones. Phoebe's brain, like any normal brain, was used to her being her and not somebody else. Sarah had told her something similar. The memories Phoebe had received were only a fraction of Sarah's, just ones that were in some way related to Peter, which still was a respectable amount since Peter had been a sponsor of their project for a couple of years.

After some hours the memories came alive, the pain would subside and then she would be pulled into one of the memories. Phoebe would then relive it from Sarah's perspective. After each memory the pain returned to full strength before she was thrown into another memory.

* * *

Sarah stood at a high table in one of the university's hallways. In front of Sarah was a tall man with short brown hair and green eyes, he was wearing a simple yet elegant suit.

He said: "I have heard about your project. And your loss, I feel sorry for your friend. You are Sarah, right? My name is Peter."

Sarah answered: "Thank you. Why did you want to meet me?"

Peter leaned onto the table. "I have a proposition of sorts. I can provide you with funds and contacts for your research and all you have to do is to keep me updated with anything you may find out." As Sarah didn't say anything he added: "Take your time, you know how to contact me.

With those words he turned around and made his way to the exit.

* * *

As the memory faded, the pain increased again. In the few moments of clarity Phoebe had she theorized that the headache would stop once all memories had been processed… however long that would take.

* * *

Sarah now stood in the laboratory, next to her stood Harald. They were both working on welding circuits into small black metal pieces.

They were interrupted by the entrance door opening, Peter walked in.

He called out to them: "Hey, how are you doing?"

Sarah answered: "We are working on what will be my fingertip implants. I'll be able to interface with both computers and humans once I have them."

Harald added: "I'm doing what I can while I can. The MRI showed a severe decline in activity in several of my brain regions, don't know for how long I'll be able to keep standing if that continues."

Peter said: "Just be careful please, we don't want another one of you dying."

* * *

It took longer for the pain to return this time. Phoebe was able to sit up and drink some water before her head started spinning again.

* * *

Sarah was woken from her sleep by her phone ringing. She reached for it and picked up.

It was Anna, she sounded very upset, panicked almost. "Sarah, you need to come to the hospital right now. Peter had a heart attack and they are trying to revive him."

Sarah was wide awake all of a sudden. What could have caused that? Why was he at the hospital and when it happened? She decided to ask questions later.

She put on the first clothes she could find and rushed to her car, not even bothering with taking her wallet or her driver's license with her.

She arrived at the hospital ten minutes of risky driving later, she exited the car and sprinted up to the building. The staff must have been informed about her coming since she was directed to where Peter was immediately after coming in through the door.

The woman behind the counter said: "Second floor, room six.

Sarah kept on running. Up two flights of stairs and down a corridor, she almost ran over a tired surgeon who was getting ready go home. Once she arrived at room six, she opened the door. Two nurses and a doctor stood next to Peter's bed, Anna was there as well.

The doctor said: "We managed to stabilize him. He should regain consciousness any moment now."

Sarah sighed in relief.

Peter opened his eyes, groaned and tried to sit up, only for the nurses to tell him to stay down for now.

Anna asked: "What happened?"

Peter just weakly pointed at the doctor, who started explaining: "He just came in here saying that he was in the process of having a heart attack, then he collapsed. I still have no idea what exactly is happening here."

In the meantime Peter had gathered enough strength to speak. "That psychological trauma I had in school… I thought I was mostly over it thanks to your help but after all those years but something managed to bring it back."

The doctor seemed to understand. "Ah, I see. Heart failure due intense stress. It's rare but it can happen, it was good that you noticed and came here, otherwise it might have ended badly."

Peter just nodded, then closed his eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

Phoebe's mind was unusually clear after this memory, maybe it had something to do with the length of it, maybe it had been the last one. She thought about what she had just seen. Maybe this was the event that Sarah had told her about during the interrogation, the event because of which they had to cut away most of Peter's emotions. It was a possibility.

After the pain didn't return in half an hour Phoebe decided to go outside and talk to the others about it. Hannah would probably have an idea how to interpret those memories, even if it would be a very sparsely worded one as was usual for Hannah.

Phoebe opened the door of her container and looked around. Anna was still sitting at a computer with Gerald, probably going over the specifics of their code. Sarah was talking to one of the guards they had brought along. Hannah just stood around on the side eating a sandwich.

As Phoebe stepped out of the door she heard Anna call: "Sarah, could you come over here, Gerald would like some insight into your finger implants."

Phoebe flinched, when Anna said Sarah's name she herself had felt addressed and it had taken her a moment to remember that she was Phoebe and not Sarah. It was a little bit scary how the memory transfer already affected her.

After shaking off the feeling Phoebe walked over to Hannah who just greeted her with a hand gesture since she was in the middle of biting down on her sandwich. Phoebe then told Hannah about the decision she and Sarah had made and about the memories she had witnessed in the past hours.

Hannah just said: "Hm." After a questioning look from Phoebe she added: "Write it down. We'll look at it then."

While this was not as helpful as Phoebe would have hoped she couldn't deny that everyone should have a rough idea about Sarah's memories, if details were required Phoebe could answer. Now that she thought about it, it was really a good idea from Sarah to isolate her memories in Phoebe so that they could have a look at them with as little bias as possible.

Phoebe went back to her container, opened her laptop and started writing while the memories were still fresh in her head. There was a lot of information to go through but then again, that was her job.


	67. Chapter 66

A couple of days after their encounter with the bandits Jack and Nathaniel reached the snowy biome. The transition was very sudden, as to be expected from Minecraft biomes. Right as they crossed the biome border the temperature dropped sharply and snowflakes started falling down onto their heads.

They put on additional layers of clothes below their chain armor to keep themselves warm, they also had a warming potion for emergency use only. At night they cleared a small area of snow and lit a campfire. They still had plenty of rations packed so they didn't go hungry.

The snow biome was much quieter than the road they had walked on before, the snowflakes in the air muffled sounds from far away, if there even were any. The only thing the two of them heard were the sounds of their footsteps, their armor and their breaths. Trees were only sparse and the terrain was generally flat, there were only a few hills here and there so travelling was easy for now.

On the third day in the snow they came across a rock formation that stood inexplicably out in the open and looked too angular not to be man-made. Jack speculated about what its purpose might be. Maybe it was a waypoint or some kind of obscure monument, maybe it was a memorial to a war that had been fought here. From what little of the server's history Jack had heard he knew that there had been many of wars, especially in the early times. The rock formation could be any number of years old, decay was inconsistent at best on the server.

Most importantly though, the formation was marked on Jack's map and told them that they were a third of the way through the snow.

"A fourth." Nathaniel corrected. "We don't want to go through the Cauldron."

* * *

On the eighth day of their journey they woke up to an unusual amount of wind and an extinguished campfire.

"That's a snowstorm." Jack muttered.

Nathaniel said: "Yeah. We better get moving, we don't have the tools to build a shelter here so we have to find one."

Jack asked: "A cave or something?"

Nathaniel nodded.

Over the course of the next couple of hours the temperature dropped dramatically, the wind picked up even more and the snow was now falling so quickly that it almost completely obscured their vision. It also didn't help that the chain links of their armor went stiffer and stiffer as ice formed on them.

Over the howling of the wind Nathaniel yelled: "This doesn't look good for us."

Jack didn't bother answering. He had a hard enough time wading through the now knee deep snow while constantly hitting his chainmail to loosen the ice. Even though he did wear thick clothing, the cold was starting to get through to him, his fingers and toes were starting to get numb and his movements were getting sluggish.

He yelled to Nathaniel: "This would be a good time for the potion."

He saw Nathaniel nod.

Jack stopped and took his backpack off, undoing the ties was difficult with his freezing fingers. It turned out that while the ties were manageable, the screw plug of the potion however was not, they had never opened the bottle before and it was sealed completely shut and refused to budge.

Jack then desperately attempted biting through the glass of the bottle's neck, Nathaniel stopped him.

"That's Mencur-Besh made glass, you'll lose your teeth before it breaks."

Jack threw the bottle back into his backpack in frustration. He really felt the cold now and he could tell that Nathaniel wasn't doing any better. As his body cooled down further Jack could feel himself losing grip on his consciousness…

* * *

Only fragments of voices got through to Jack, mostly drowned out by the wind. He had the feeling of being moved somewhere, he was entirely numb. After what seemed like an eternity to him, the wind stopped and the voices were getting clearer, he felt a hint of warmth. Over time, the warmth increased and Jack felt the numbness in his torso and head subside, he still couldn't feel his limbs.

He opened his eyes, everything was blurry. The blurriness went away after blinking a few times. Jack saw a dark, wooden ceiling held up by a couple of interlocking logs. He couldn't move his head so that was all he could see. This was not the hacker's spawning building.

He heard a voice belonging to a man. "Look, this one's awake." Then again, this time directed at him: "Whatever you do, don't move."

Jack's jaw was still too frozen to speak so he tried to acknowledge by blinking.

The man leaned over him, he had short dark brown hair and a well-kept beard of equal length and color, his eyes were blue. He was holding the flask Jack had tried to open so desperately before losing consciousness. He gave Jack about half of it to drink. Almost instantly a wave of warmth flooded his veins, spreading from his heart outwards into his limbs. Sensation returned to most of his skin.

The man said: "You can slowly sit up now."

Jack did as the man said. He had been lying on a table. He then noticed that he was wearing only his lowest layer of clothing.

The man said: "Your stuff is safe and being dried right now." Then he added: "That might be your least worry right now though."

At first Jack didn't know what he meant but then he noticed a distinct lack of feeling in some of his fingers, as he looked at his hands he realized in horror that he only had half of them left.

Jack lacked the energy to properly panic, he just slowly asked: "Shouldn't that be hurting way more normally?"

The man nodded. "It should. But normally you don't get found by a healer either. Or at all."

Jack just said: "What."

"Give me your hands and brace yourself because this will hurt."

A pale light started radiating from the man's palms, Jack felt a slight tingle where his frozen fingers had broken off. The tingle quickly increased to a sting and only got worse from there. Jack clenched his teeth as he watched bones grow from the stumps, one digit at a time, the bones were followed by sinews, muscles and then finally skin and nails.

The man was visibly exhausted, he asked: "That is what your fingers looked like, right? It's the best I can do."

Jack was at a loss of words. He just nodded in disbelief and put his hands together, it felt like his fingers had never been gone. This was the first time he had actually experienced magic in person on the server.

As he turned around he saw that Nathaniel was also just waking up, a woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes was giving him the rest of the potion.

The man said: "I'm Daniel and this is my wife Lucy. I sensed you two out there and then noticed you getting weaker, we went and rescued you. It seems like we came just in time, your clothes were almost frozen solid and your bodies would have followed no doubt."

Jack didn't immediately say anything and instead inspected his surroundings some more. He was in a rectangular room in what looked to be a wooden house, the carpentry was expertly done. Two doors lead into the room and two windows were on the walls, currently the only thing he could see was a wall of snow. The ceiling and doors were unusually tall. The room he was in seemed to be the kitchen if the stove and the cupboards with tableware were any indication. The table he and Nathaniel had been lying on was also quite large, clearly made for more than two people. Two sides of the table had walls right behind them, instead of chairs there were benches on all four sides, which had blue cushions with red decorations.

Nathaniel sat up and said: "Thank you." After a short pause he asked: "You're from Rockhaven right?"

Lucy asked: "Did the clothes give it away?"

The greenish-brown clothing that Daniel and Lucy were wearing struck Jack as quite odd, his mind was unable to place it in any category other than "expertly made", he knew that he had seen something like it before but he couldn't recall where. After thinking for a few more seconds he remembered where. The man who had bought some sort of poison back in Redwater had been wearing the same type of clothes.

Jack and Nathaniel stood up and got off the table, then just looked at their saviors questioningly.

Lucy said: "The storm is still going on and won't stop for some time, we'll make you something to eat."

"Sounds good." Jack said.

* * *

Over the next hour Daniel and Lucy cooked up a stew with a variety of ingredients that Jack had not expected them to have. While it was natural for them to have meat, the range of vegetables surprised him, seeing that nothing would grow in the snow, they must have bought them off a trader who had taken the shortcut as well.

When the stew was almost done, Daniel sprinkled some kind of powder into it, a few seconds later Jack found out that it must have been a spice judging by the violent reaction of his own nose. They then sat down at the table and started eating, the stew was excellent if a bit too spicy.

Lucy asked: "So, what brings you into this area?"

Nathaniel replied: "We are mercenaries on the way to Rockhaven, or Rockhaven Port in my case."

Lucy laughed. "I used to be in charge of logistics in an army, so you could say that I'm familiar with the work. It was a couple of hundred years back but still."

Jack asked: "Used to?"

"The army disbanded after our enemy had been defeated. After that whole ordeal I had enough of the fighting and went to Rockhaven, which is where I met Daniel."

Daniel continued: "I used to be a professor at the Mage Guild's university, technically I still am but I prefer the life out here. I do miss holding lectures though."

Jack said: "This place is a bit large for just the two of you."

Daniel and Lucy looked at each other for a moment, then Lucy said: "We do receive visitors quite often, some from the Mage Guild, sometimes a few other friends stop by. We also offer shelter to travelers like you."

Jack nodded. "Makes sense."

After they finished eating, Daniel showed them the beds on the upper floor. This house really was quite large for being built in the wilderness and being only inhabited by two people. As Jack fell asleep he couldn't help but wonder what this house really was, he was certain that it was more than Daniel and Lucy let on. But for now he was content to have a warm bed to sleep in and to have all ten fingers on his hands.


	68. Chapter 67

Ambigious walked next to Unchosen at the rear end of the group. They were in a wide open grass plains area that was entirely clear of trees, the black walls of Rockhaven towered in front of them, the sun setting behind the group dramatically illuminated the scenery.

From afar Rockhaven's walls didn't look much out of the ordinary but as they got closer, Ambigious could see that they reflected small amounts of light and shimmered in the colors of the sunset. Above the walls he could see a slight distortion, he figured that it was caused by whatever protective spells were in place above the city.

Half an hour of walking later the sun had almost disappeared but they had arrived at the foot of the walls. Four guards stood where Ambigious would have assumed to be a gate but he just saw a regular section of wall. The guards wore diamond armor that entirely covered them in a similar fashion to his own armor.

As they walked closer, one of the guards stopped them. Judging by guard's voice it was a woman. "State your name and business."

Fire and Shadow threw Ambigious and the others a quick look, then Shadow began talking: "I am Shadow, a citizen of Rockhaven. Me and my apprentice" she pointed at freeZe "wish to enter the city. The others are mercenaries hired for our protection."

The guard nodded. "Do you have your citizen pass?"

Without words, Shadow took a small orb out of her pocket, it seemed to be made from artificial bedrock. The guard took the orb and then gave it to another guard who placed it in a small golden device. The device emitted some crackling noises and after a few seconds a voice, obviously demonic in origin, said: "Clear."

The guard said: "You and your apprentice can go in, your mercenaries have to stay."

Fire said: "I am Fire and I too am a citizen of Rockhaven and those three are my apprentices."

Before the female guard was able to say anything, the guard holding the device asked: "Not the Fire, right?"

Shadow replied: "Exactly that one."

While Ambigious was slightly confused by what the guard and Shadow meant, the guards suddenly seemed to be tenser than before.

One of the two other guards said: "Lady, if you can hire a former Guard captain for your protection you must be really worth protecting."

The other guards immediately shot him scolding looks. Meanwhile Fire handed them his pass. The demon in the device again responded with "clear", but then also added something else that Ambigious couldn't quite understand. He assumed that it was something in the demonic language since his head began to hurt when he tried to make any sense of it. Ambigious had no idea what the demon said but whatever it was, it seemed to amuse Fire.

The guards gave Shadow and Fire their passes back and stepped aside. Fire took the lead and walked straight at the city walls. A few seconds before he reached them, a small crack opened, which then expanded to a size that the group could walk through comfortably. Ambigious was surprised that the walls were only a few centimeters thick. As the walls closed again, he looked back, curious if he could see the door mechanism but all he saw was the walls closing again without leaving a trace. Magic probably, again.

After the walls had closed, Ambigious noticed that the air around him was different from the air outside, it stood completely still and had a different temperature and humidity, just so that you wouldn't notice that it was there at all, it was also the freshest air he had ever breathed.

Ambigious turned forwards again and was met with a view he wouldn't forget in a long time. He was on a wide street, it seemed to be made from artificial bedrock as well, only roughed up so that you wouldn't lose your foothold. It shimmered in all rainbow colors but was still predominantly black. The street was ever so slightly glowing, providing all the light that was necessary to see everything clearly. Every time somebody set their foot down, a wave of slightly brighter light radiated outwards. The buildings too were made from artificial bedrock and had all the hallmarks of Mencur-Besh architecture. They were generally simplistic at first glance but once you looked at them for a bit you could notice incredible details in the form of ornaments. The doors were made to be used by both humans and Mencur-Besh, Ambigious noticed that opposed to those in Drandin, the doors here did have locks.

The streets weren't very populated near the gate but there were more people further in. Every once in a while he also saw a Mencur-Besh in the streets. The people wore many variants of colorful clothes made from what seemed to be nether wool, Ambigious couldn't quite tell if they looked formal, casual or practical and in the end decided that no matter the occasion, you couldn't really go wrong wearing them.

He asked Fire: "So, do we get those pass ball things too?"

Fire replied: "No, those are only required for entry, once you are inside the city nobody asks questions about where you came from, except out of personal interest. There is only one way in and out so the checks at the gate are enough to ensure that everyone who is in the city is actually allowed there."

When they reached an intersection, Shadow pointed straight ahead. "We'll go this way. We're going to the tower, I want to speak to the new keeper. From what I heard she's only been in the position for a few weeks."

As they walked to the center, the tower came into view more and more. It reached almost up to the magical barriers, Ambigious could see the eye looking down onto them and shivered. TehLulz had told him about his excursion to Drandin's tower and the purpose of the eyes, he wasn't scared of the eye but just the image of an eye in a tower staring down onto everyone gave him some rather sinister vibes.

The tower stood in the middle of an expansive circular plaza, the outer edge of which was lined with what looked to be the various guild houses. Right behind the tower was the royal palace, which occupied exactly the same amount of space as a guild house. The plaza was divided into sections, each had patterns with illustrations of the respective guild's work.

They crossed the plaza and went straight to the tower's door. Shadow knocked and said: "Hello. I am Shadow, former archmage of the Mage Guild, I would like to see how you are settling in."

freeZe whispered to her brother: "Didn't know that Fire and Shadow both once had such important positions here."

The door was opened by a tall, red-haired woman wearing a green robe that had subtle but effective red and golden decorations. Her voice was soft and a tad higher than average. She said: "Oh, hello. I didn't expect such an important visitor today, come in."

Shadow introduced everyone to the tower keeper, who answered: "Good to meet you all, I am Carol."

Ambigious said: "With that name it's a good thing that this isn't a bell tower."

Carol smiled. "I have thought about that before and believe me, I'm glad that it isn't."

The ground floor of the tower was Carol's living quarters, nothing was out of place and there wasn't a speck of dirt or dust on anything. They sat down on a round table while Carol made tea for everyone on a blaze powder operated stove, then sat down with them.

Shadow asked: "How is it so far?"

Carol answered: "The beginning was rather sudden, only hours after I heard that the old keeper fell and broke her neck on the stairs it was announced to me that I was the new keeper."

Fire asked: "Mage Guild, right?"

Carol hesitated but then answered: "Yes, I am an Ender mage and actually hoped to become a professor at the University but I guess that will have to wait for a while."

Ambigious wondered why Carol was so reluctant to answer Fire, Mencur-Besh were more common in Rockhaven than anywhere else on the server, save for Drandin, so she couldn't possibly be scared, right?

Carol then surprisingly turned to him. "You are mercenaries, correct? Tell me some stories of your battles, it's been a long time since I have spoken to anyone from outside."

Ambigious started off with a story Andras had told him and slightly changed it just in case Carol had read any of Andras' books. The others joined in with their own made-up tales, Fire soon took over for them, he definitely had no need to make up battle stories. As a finale freeZe told the tale of their encounter with the ghoul, although the staircase had become a regular cave and her usage of black flames disappeared entirely.

After about two hours Carol was satisfied and beaming with excitement about the tense stories they had told. She poured all of them a final cup of tea, then they left the tower.

Fire said: "Now that we are here already, I'll have to see when I can get a proper audience with the king. Shadow will take you to her house near here."

Shadow nodded and said: "This way."

Shadow's house looked just like any other from the outside, on the inside it looked not unlike some of the rooms they had seen in the base. A clock on the wall indicated that it was past midnight already and they were feeling appropriately tired. Shadow showed them each their rooms, then disappeared into her own.

Ambigious' room looked similar to the one he had chosen in the base, very simplistic but still homely. As he got into bed he wondered what else would happen in Rockhaven. Fire's plan to diplomatically get the Axe surely would work but by now Ambigious knew that nothing ever went down completely without side events.


	69. Chapter 68

Unchosen was woken up by freeZe.

She explained: "When I woke up I couldn't find Shadow anywhere. She's probably off doing something important. Anyways, I made us breakfast. Come down when you're dressed."

After getting out of bed Unchosen opened the dresser, inside were several variants of the clothes he had seen the other people in Rockhaven wear.

In one of their alchemy lessons he had talked to Fire about the many facets of Rockhaven's clothes, which were usually made from nether wool due to its durability and comfort. The style of clothing you wore was generally dictated by what guild you were in with the color schemes giving additional information about your fields. Mages would wear robes with colored decorations according to their elements. Enchanters wore robes as well but those tended to be less wide and flowing than those of mages. Alchemists wore long coats. Blacksmiths wore lighter clothes that allowed them to work their forges without getting too hot… And so on.

Decorations indicated your rank within your respective guild, clothes worn by outsiders like himself were usually quite plain as opposed to those of guild leaders and similarly influential figures. The only type of clothes that outsiders were not allowed to wear was the off-duty uniform of the Royal Guard. What this meant for Unchosen was that he would dress appropriately for the alchemist he was, he chose a brown long coat with appropriately colored pants and a white shirt.

As Unchosen went down the stairs into the kitchen, he saw that the others were already sitting at the table, freeZe must have taken Ambigious' long wake up time into account. The others were already wearing their appropriate clothes. Ambigious wore what looked to be a hybrid of regular clothes and an apron, which despite how weird the concept was, didn't look nearly as strange as it sounded. freeZe had exchanged her black robe for a grey one that had decorations held in powerful red and yellow colors, representing her alignment with Fire and Air. Unchosen looked at TehLulz' clothes last…

"Hey, Unchosen, look at my shoulder pads!" TehLulz said, addressing what Unchosen had wanted to ask about that same second.

He replied: "They are… nice?"

TehLulz laughed. "Large is what they are." He then added: "I imagine that the first mages claimed normal robes and the first enchanters were a bit mad that they had to come up with their own thing so they just thought 'Hey, we'll also take robes but robes with oversized shoulder pads that make us look like walking hourglasses, that'll show 'em!', makes sense, right?"

Ambigious said: "And despite everything they manage not to look completely hilarious."

* * *

After they were done with eating, they just sat around in the kitchen some more, they didn't know Rockhaven well enough to wander around and reliably find their way back to Shadow's house and they also didn't know how soon or late Shadow or Fire would return.

Their waiting was interrupted by someone ringing the very pleasant sounding redstone doorbell. Unchosen was the first to stand up and walk over to the door. Very much to his surprise it was Carol who was on the other side of the door.

Unchosen said: "Hello Carol. What brings you here?"

Carol answered: "Shadow came to my tower again just earlier. She told me that she will assist in a large enchanting ritual in the Enchanter Guild that you might want to see. She tasked me with taking you there since you don't know the city yet."

Unchosen nodded. "Uh, sure. I'll get the others."

* * *

As they walked towards the central plaza, Unchosen asked Carol: "This is okay with you, right?"

Carol smiled. "Oh, it's no bother. I always liked enchantment rituals and I can keep an eye on the tower from afar through my magic. Besides, who am I to deny doing a former archmage a favor?"

Unchosen said: "True, I can imagine that she still has a lot of influence around here. We just know her as a mage we need to protect, admittedly a powerful mage, but still."

Carol replied: "Former guild leaders are highly respected by everyone in the city, well, except for those who did something so terrible that they got their position taken away from them. That is sadly the case for more archmages than the guild likes to admit, no other discipline is as prone to power abuse as mages."

freeZe asked: "What did some of those archmages do?"

Carol said: "Does 'Witch's Cauldron' mean anything to you? A long time ago there used to be a settlement there, not sure if they actually did anything but the archmage in power was convinced that it was a threat. He then set off a magical chain reaction in the area, permanently creating a zone where magic would go wild. The settlement was ravaged by firestorms, stray lightning and worse things. What put the final nail in the coffin for the archmage was that a couple of field mages discovered that the anomaly was growing and we didn't know a way to stop it."

freeZe asked: "So, what happened?"

Carol sighed. "While I usually do not approve of their unrequested interventions, that was the one time where the Mencur-Besh definitely saved a lot of lives. Their mages made stone spikes erupt from the ground, forming massive mountains and containing the spreading chaos."

So it was true then, Carol really didn't like the Mencur-Besh. Her reasons were understandable but Unchosen wondered if she knew the true history of the city she lived in and if she didn't how she would react if she was told.

They silently walked the rest of the way to the Enchanter Guild. On the inside, the guild was made from quartz and surprisingly there weren't any books or runes anywhere on the walls. The enchanters wore robes similar to those that TehLulz was wearing. Carol showed them the way to what she called the enchantment chamber.

The area around the chamber reminded Unchosen of a theater or an opera. There were stairs going up to seats and loges. They were now in one such loge, comfortably sitting on armchairs, looking down into the chamber.

The chamber itself looked quite impressive, a circular room with an elevated platform in the middle, the walls were lined with bookshelves. The platform had four large, unnatural looking crystals growing out of it, bending inwards towards a pedestal. Unchosen assumed this to serve a similar function to a regular enchantment table. Eight slates made from artificial bedrock were positioned around the platform, each slate had one large pulsating rune embedded in it.

He turned to TehLulz and asked: "What are those big runes good for?"

TehLulz explained: "For general purpose enchanting runes printed on paper are more than enough. Printed runes never are completely accurate though. If you perform a specific enchantment often and want it to be of the best quality, you use runes from stone tablets, those tablets usually contain all the runes you need for an enchantment. The slates here are just of an even higher quality, the runes on them are the most important ones for the enchantment. This will be a memory book as far as I can tell from the runes."

Unchosen said: "It makes sense that they would only use the highest quality here."

As he looked back to the chamber, a door opened and a group of enchanters walked out one by one, Unchosen counted sixteen. Fire was among them, no other Mencur-Besh were present. Fire was wearing enchanter robes as well, his were black and had a large, red Eye-and-Claws emblem on the chest. Unchosen had seen it on several other Mencur-Besh in the city and assumed that it also served as a symbol for anything Mencur-Besh related.

Fire appearing seemed to have prompted Carol to speak again, albeit hesitantly: "Going back on what I said before, I don't dislike all Mencur-Besh, just those that meddle with things where they have no business being. Those I know personally are actually quite nice and Fire seems to be no exception. I guess they are quite like us in that respect, there are always some who don't know where to stop."

Unchosen just nodded since he wasn't sure if he would have been able to hide his amusement about what Carol had just said. If only she knew the true nature of the Mencur-Besh. Judging by what she just said he wasn't sure how she would react if she found out. It was just another sign that the Mencur-Besh masquerade was working perfectly.

In the meantime the enchanters had arranged themselves along the edge of the platform. Half of them were holding stone tablets, which probably had runes on them according to what TehLulz had said earlier. A last person walked in through the door, it was Shadow, she was wearing a black robe with rich decorations of various colors.

Carol explained: "As you can see, the interior is built from quartz instead of artificial bedrock, this is because when the first inhabitants found Rockhaven, the guild houses were actually completely empty, large halls. Now, having sixteen enchanters shout at the top of their voice can be extremely destructive to quartz, which is why an Ender mage is required to contain the energy. The strength of the shield also determines how powerful the enchantment can be, seeing that this is a former archmage we are talking about, I can imagine that they won't have to hold back."

freeZe asked: "Have you ever had that role?"

Carol said slowly: "Once, but I don't talk about it."

She then moved her chair a bit forward to hide a crack in the wall of the loge that Unchosen hadn't noticed before.

He looked down again, he saw that Shadow was getting ready to cast her spell, her runes were already glowing. A purple force field started creeping over the quartz, radiating from Shadow outwards and covering all quartz surfaces within a matter of seconds.

Carol whispered: "Wow, most mages just project a cylinder around the enchanters, this is so fancy."

Fire stepped forward and placed a book on the pedestal in the middle, then went back to his place. The enchanters threw each other quick looks to make sure everyone was ready. It was time for the enchantment to begin.

A short, curly-haired woman standing next to Fire was the first one to speak, her powerful voice filled the entire chamber and made the runes on the slates glow more brightly and pulsate more quickly. A few other enchanters joined into her monotone, making the glowing runes separate from the slates, leaving behind carved negatives. The eight large runes formed a circle around the curved crystals, the enchanters' voices stopped for a moment, then rose again. Eight of the enchanters kept their voices at a constant pitch, keeping the runes in place, occasionally varying their tone if one of them tried to return to its slate. The remaining eight enchanters now also began, their voices were much more varied and erratic compared to the others, each one was attaching the runes from their tablet to the large rune in front of them. One by one the smaller runes separated from their carved counterparts and went to their places.

Unchosen had seen the process of enchanting before in the base but what he had seen there was no comparison to what he saw and most importantly heard here. It was like listening to a very abstract choir, although the rhythmical, deep shouts from the enchanters with the tablets could very well pass for drum beats.

Several minutes later, all enchanters had attached their runes to the big ones, now they all spoke in unison and guided the large runes towards the center. When they had almost reached the book, all voices stopped except for Fire's. As if to compensate for being alone, his voice suddenly gained a strange otherworldly resonance that was unlike any Unchosen had heard anywhere before. The runes shuddered and then snapped into the book faster than he could look. The curved crystals lit up with energy, focusing it into the book with four narrow beams. When the infusion process was done, Fire's voice stopped and Shadow's barrier faded. Unchosen could see a general sense of celebration amongst the enchanters.

He turned to TehLulz. "So, any details on this one?"

TehLulz said: "All I can tell you is that it was one of the most complicated enchantments I have ever seen, not as complicated as… you know, but still."

It was easy to guess that TehLulz was referring to the eye he had examined in Drandin but he couldn't go into more detail since Carol was here.

While they walked down the stairs, Carol asked excitedly: "And? How was it?"

Ambigious answered: "It's like a concert, I like it."

The others nodded. As they were about to leave the guild, they saw Fire and Shadow come out of a door, Fire was talking to the enchantress that had stood next to him during the ritual, Shadow waved them over.

She said: "I hope you enjoyed the show, I certainly did." She then turned to Carol and said: "Thank you for accompanying those four here. We'll now go eat something at that alchemist's restaurant close to here, if you want you can come with us."

Carol said: "I would love to."


	70. Chapter 69

It was no rarity for alchemists to run gastronomies, cooking just being a tamer version of alchemy that required similar skills in timing, preparation and mixing of ingredients. The restaurant they were headed to was located in the same section of Rockhaven that also housed the Alchemist Guild, although a bit more towards the outer parts of the city.

After just a few minutes of walking, they stood before the restaurant named "The Creeper's Tongue". Naming buildings after poisons or poisonous ingredients was somewhat of a tradition among Alchemists, however finding good original names became increasingly harder since the colorful sounding ones had been used up fairly quickly.

The Creeper's Tongue was one of the oldest alchemical gastronomies in Rockhaven and its interior also looked the part. There were no lamps of any kind, all the light came from diamond-glass pipes running through everything. The pipes contained glowing liquids with intense red, green and blue colors, sometimes connecting to larger tanks. The pipes on the walls were thinner and formed complex patterns. Next to their primary function as lighting, the liquids flowing through the pipes also served as a way to keep the room at an ideal temperature. It was clear that a lot of money and time had been sunk into this elaborate piping system.

There were not many others in the restaurant since most people would eat a couple of hours later. This meant that they could take the large round table in the middle of the restaurant for themselves. The table had a glass surface through which you could see the different glowing liquids forming blobs and reacting with each other, it looked similar to a lava lamp only that the blobs travelled in all directions instead of just up and down. The enchantress that had come with them sat down next to Fire, Shadow sat down on his other side, Carol beside her, followed by freeZe, Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen.

Ambigious said: "This place looks expensive."

Shadow replied: "Everything in Rockhaven is expensive, to outsiders at least. People working in the guilds have a steady and high source of income, guild leaders also receive extra money depending on how the guild is doing, good leadership needs to be rewarded after all."

The enchantress raised a purse, evidently full of gold coins and said: "We two got our share of the down-payment already. If the enchantment is satisfactory to our buyer, the guild receives the rest."

Shadow said: "Shielding mages receive their entire payment right away, it's a fair bit higher than the upfront sums the enchanters get. I think that everything you order should be on me."

The enchantress said: "Thank you, Shadow."

Shadow asked: "What is your name by the way? You never told me."

The enchantress answered: "Undira."

Their conversation was interrupted by a waiter wearing the characteristic alchemist coat coming to the table and handing out menus to everyone.

Fire said: "The first pages have all kinds of regular food, the pages further back have more interesting things."

Shadow interjected: "There is a meal that looks like a human head."

freeZe said: "I'd rather not…"

Shadow grinned. "But I will."

Undira said: "I actually ate that once, it only looks like one from the outside, the inside structure is nothing like a head."

Unchosen pointed at his menu: "There is a 'contains glowstone' on this one, what about that?"

Fire explained: "Glowstone is safe to eat, in over five thousand years I haven't found anybody with a glowstone allergy yet. If it's ground up finely enough it gets into your blood and gives you glowing veins and eyes, mostly used for cosmetic purposes but it can also help during certain medical procedures. If you eat an extraordinary amount you should avoid physical activity afterwards because you could overheat."

Ambigious asked: "What about redstone?"

Fire answered: "Eating or inhaling it is not that good of an idea. It accumulates on your nerves over time and can cause some serious damage to motor functions if there is enough of it. That's also the reason why redstone engineers wear masks."

Ambigious asked: "Blaze powder?"

Fire replied: "It's hot, obviously. In small amounts it helps you retain your body temperature in cold areas. I don't think I need to go into detail about what happens when you eat larger quantities of a hot-burning powder. If you're fireproof due to a potion, magic or being a Mencur-Besh it can be used to breathe flames, it's a party trick mostly."

freeZe meanwhile was going through the list of drinks and discovered that more than a few had a tag that labelled them as toxic. The paragraph describing the tag said that those drinks were primarily for alchemists who had acquired a resistance or for people with various health conditions who needed to take certain substances.

Once they all had decided on what they wanted to eat and drink, they called the waiter and ordered. The four apprentices ordered nothing out of the ordinary, Undira ordered glowstone soup, Fire ordered a plate of exotic meats, Shadow ordered an edible human head, at which freeZe shuddered again.

While waiting, most of them started talking to each other. Undira talked to Fire and seemed to be extremely interested in Mencur-Besh anatomy, Fire answered her questions in generous detail but occasionally diverted the focus of the conversation away from sensitive information. Ambigious talked to TehLulz and Unchosen. freeZe passed the time by staring at the blobs inside the table while occasionally joining her brother in the conversation. Only Carol and Shadow said nothing.

After a few minutes, Carol tapped Shadow's shoulder. "Would you mind taking down your obfuscation spell, it's really putting me off not being able to feel any vital signs from you."

Shadow smiled. "There is no obfuscation spell. It's just how I am."

"What do you mean?"

Shadow asked: "Have you ever read about the process of ascension?"

Carol replied: "I have, it's just that there isn't a whole lot of good documentation out there, the exact process is never described. I assume that's because they don't want anyone repeating it."

"Trying."

"What?"

"Trying to repeat it, they won't succeed. I am fairly certain that my ascension was a very lucky interplay of many very variable factors and it's very unlikely that it will ever succeed again."

Carol asked: "I hope you don't mind, but what does ascension have to do with anything?"

Shadow said: "I can tell you this much, during the process I was in a state of equilibrium, right between life and death, not undead, that's a completely different direction. What made my ascension successful is that I remained in that state. I lost my vital functions in the process, I am entirely driven by magic."

Carol raised an eyebrow. "How should I imagine that?"

Shadow explained: "My heart doesn't beat, I don't have any blood to speak of, my muscles are actuated by magic, I don't need to eat, drink or sleep although I can if I want to. Whatever I consume is turned directly into life force."

Carol asked: "So, can you even die?"

Shadow replied: "Can a mountain die? If something isn't truly alive, it also can't die. My body can be destroyed but I never die."

Carol breathed out slowly and said: "This is quite heavy over dinner."

Shadow said: "I can put up a spell that makes you see vital signs, if that puts you at ease."

Carol shook her head. "No, no. It's fine. It just begs the question about why you need mercenaries to escort you."

Shadow said: "While I may be fairly resistant, the same can't be said about my apprentice. Being mangled by a magic immune beast isn't fun either and forming a new body from scratch could take months."

"That makes sense."

Eventually the waiter arrived with their respective meals, everybody got exactly what they imagined their order to be. Undira's soup glowed as expected. Fire's meats looked as exotic as expected. Shadow's human head was as disturbing as expected.

Halfway through the meal Undira started glowing noticeably, especially her veins stood out in a powerful yellow, naturally her eyes and the inside of her mouth had started glowing as well.

freeZe commented: "Looks fancy."

Undira replied: "Yup. It does make it a bit harder to see though, it's as if everything has a yellow tint." She then promptly turned to Fire and completely changed topic. "Fire, that strange sound you made at the end of the ritual, what was that?"

Fire finished chewing on some creeper steak and said: "We Mencur-Besh have a small ender pearl at the base of our skulls, I made mine resonate to better control the final step of the enchantment."

Undira said: "Mencur-Besh are so fascinating but there is so little to read about them."

Fire said: "Probably because our flesh and organs practically burn up within an hour after death, leaving only bones and scales behind. We ourselves don't even know how exactly some parts of us work due to that."

Fire then declared this topic to be done by once again starting to eat.

After a bit more time, they all were done eating and drinking. Shadow paid the bill as promised, then they all went on their way. As they left the Creeper's Tongue, Undira took a left while everyone else took a right.

Undira turned back around and said: "By the way, Fire. I'll be down in the lower districts tonight, I'd be happy if I saw you there too."

Carol chuckled and whispered to freeZe: "It seems that her interest in Mencur-Besh anatomy isn't purely academical." After a short pause she asked: "Does this… happen frequently?"

Ambigious had heard what Carol said and replied: "From all the time I've known him I can neither confirm nor deny that, which leaves several thousand years unaccounted for."

Ambigious threw his sister a sly grin when Carol looked away, the look he got in return had a mix of anger about what he meant and thankfulness about not having said it aloud.

When they reached the central plaza, Carol thanked them for the meal and then went into her tower.

Shadow said: "So, if you want you all can explore the city a bit. Feel free to visit any of the guilds, me and Fire will be off attending to matters that need attending."

Fire added: "Namely stocking up on provisions again. Also, I recommend visiting the Guard's place, spar with a couple of the people there, it'll do you good for future fights. freeZe, you can visit the Mage Guild for the same purposes of course."

With those words, Fire and Shadow walked off together, leaving the others standing in the middle of Rockhaven. They slowly started going their own ways to their respective destinations, freeZe went to the Mage Guild alone, the three others were headed for the Guard.


	71. Chapter 70

From the outside, the Mage Guild looked no different from the other guilds, a tall, black building with more overt decoration than the rest of the city. When freeZe walked through the archway that was the guild's entrance she immediately noticed that on the inside this guild was fundamentally different. The moment she had crossed the threshold she could feel powerful ender magic, the purpose of which becoming apparent immediately. The ceiling of the guild's entrance hall was vastly taller than the building itself would have allowed. The hall's walls were periodically lined with balconies, corridors were leading off into various parts of the guild. As opposed to other buildings, the mage guild was also made from artificial bedrock on the inside. Fire had mentioned that it could be grown using magic so it only made sense.

freeZe was stopped by a featureless marble golem seemingly acting as a receptionist of sorts. It spoke to freeZe by magically making its very hard to categorize voice appear inside of her head.

It said: "This is the first time you are here. Getting lost is easy. Take a map."

The golem then handed her a freshly projected map. The map showed the ground floor of the guild and the University of Magic that was contained within. Shadow had told freeZe about these maps, they would show your current position, along with the shortest path to wherever you wanted to go.

freeZe took a long look at the map, by moving her fingers in specific ways she also was able to look at the other floors. The map also very helpfully listed what lectures and courses were scheduled at the university, most of which she would not be able to attend due to having to register ahead of time. In the end, freeZe decided to visit a course that was dedicated to training unexperienced apprentices, which she very much was.

freeZe was past the stage of becoming a mage where she had to wrestle with her life force's will all of the time, her life force was now firmly under her control. What she lacked was experience. She still needed to figure out the finer nuances of magic, build up her mental spell library and develop a magical muscle memory of sorts.

She tapped the room on her map, it jumped back to her location and a red line indicated the direct path to that room. While she walked through the guild freeZe noticed that there were also portals leading back to the entrance hall in regular intervals. After inspecting one more closely, she found out that the portals could actually be used to travel to each other.

freeZe arrived at the door to the lecture room and pushed it open. Inside were three other apprentices, two women and a man, and a professor, also a man. Judging by their robes, the apprentices all had different affinities. The man was a pure Water mage, one woman was Life-Earth, the other Wither-Ender with a minor affinity for Air. The professor's more elaborate robes' decorations indicated that he was mainly Ender-Fire but also able to cast lesser spells from most other elements.

As freeZe walked inside, the professor greeted her. "Ah, hello there. It seems like we have another apprentice here today. May I ask who you are?"

Shadow had explained to freeZe that in the mage guild names were largely irrelevant unless you were in a higher position. Apprentices usually only knew the name of their mentor and a couple of others.

She said: "Apprentice of Shadow."

She didn't name her elements since those could be easily discerned from her robe, naturally keeping Wither a secret since there were no black decorations.

The professor eyed her suspiciously. "Not Shadow Wardbreaker, the former archmage, right?"

freeZe raised an eyebrow. "She never told me her second name but she is a former archmage."

The professor answered: "Figures, she doesn't like that name very much from what I heard." He clapped his hands and then said: "Alright, let's begin with today's lesson." He paused and then turned to freeZe again: "What is the state of your education?"

freeZe replied: "My basic training is done, I have studied the theoretical aspects of magic, although mostly where it is relevant to my elements."

The professor said: "Good, good. Do you know about magical burnout? If so, we could teach the other apprentices together because frankly while I know it very well from a practical standpoint, I don't quite remember the theory, I usually teach applied magic and my partner isn't here today."

Shadow had also told freeZe that even if you were a professor, you didn't have to know everything about magic. Usually professors taught the apprentices about their specialties in practice, with someone knowledgeable in theoretical magic explaining the workings behind it. It seemed that today that person was busy or otherwise not available.

freeZe said: "Happy to assist." Then she began: "There is a certain connection between a mage's life force and their physical body. The strength of this connection varies but usually mages with an affinity for Earth or Water have a stronger connection than Fire or Air mages. The stronger the connection, the harder it is to separate life force from body. This has both advantages and disadvantages. A stronger connection makes draining spells less effective on you but also limits how much magic can leave your body at a time."

One of the apprentices said: "Makes sense. But Earth magic usually doesn't leave your body, so is it unaffected?"

freeZe nodded. "Correct." She continued after a short pause. "Now, burnout is what happens when you attempt to push more life force out of your body than the strength of your connection allows, this is most noticeable when casting spells that require a lot of energy over a short period of time but it can also be observed when using longer, channeled spells. The effects of burnout usually manifest in nausea in its lesser forms. This stage is harmless and therefore should be where you would normally stop. If you choose to further exert yourself, then the connection may start pulling on your body. It is like trying to tear hooks from your flesh."

Another apprentice assumed: "I imagine that internal bleeding is what you're risking with that."

freeZe nodded. "It doesn't stop there. If you push hard enough you might just end up tearing yourself apart, I've never seen it happen to anything other than a projection but it wasn't pretty."

The professor said: "Good, now that the theory is covered, we'll go over to the practical part."

He projected a spherical barrier over each of the apprentices.

He explained: "I now want you to use your most unstable element until you feel the early stages of burnout. It's better to find your limit in a controlled environment instead of when you are in the middle of a spell that you shouldn't interrupt. I'm doing this specifically because that happened to one of my apprentices quite some time back, they had to renovate the enchantment chamber after the incident. We usually don't talk about it."

The professor signaled the Water mage to start. He closed his eyes and began focusing, the air inside of his barrier started getting progressively less clear, eventually turning into a thick mist. The mist changed color from white to a bright red, then cycled through the color spectrum. As it reached green for the ninth time, it stopped. The professor dispelled the barrier, the dissipating mist revealed the apprentice, now slightly paler and less steady on his feet.

He groaned. "Ugh… I'll definitely try not doing that ever again."

Seemingly satisfied, the professor signaled the next apprentice to start, this time it was the Life-Earth mage. The primary application of Life magic was to heal but it could also be used to do some other things, creating light was one of them.

As she raised her hand the apprentice said: "Look away, cover your eyes, this may get bright."

A few seconds later, light flooded the room and disappeared again. The apprentice seemed to be far from her limit. She once again made her hand light up, this time for longer and with even more intensity, anyone looking into it would have been rendered blind.

She said: "I don't think this is going anywhere, I don't have much life force and that used up a large part of it."

The professor said: "That is fine, mages with low life force rarely encounter burnout, if you're casting with an external source the problem doesn't present itself anyways."

freeZe was reminded of the shimmering crystal she had in her pocket. As promised, Shadow had gotten one for her in Drandin, it possessed an incredible storage potential. freeZe had been told to store a part of her life force in it every evening and let her pool refill itself over night. Currently the crystal was about half full, enough to refill even freeZe's pool multiple times.

The last other apprentice began immediately, freeZe felt her Wither spell resonate with her own life force. Her spell was directed at the barrier surrounding her, attempting to break with one big burst of magic. The barrier didn't break but was deformed significantly. The apprentice didn't look so well either, she staggered on her feet and then fell over backwards into the arms of the Earth-Life mage standing next to her. She had already positioned herself in a way to catch her, even before the spell had begun.

The other woman said: "I wish you would stop overestimating yourself."

freeZe felt how she used up the last bits of her life force to heal any injuries the burnout might have caused. The professor looked entirely unimpressed, this seemed to be nothing new to him.

He turned to freeZe and said: "It's your turn now."

freeZe asked: "How strong is this barrier? I have quite a large pool of life force and I haven't ever experienced burnout before so I may have to use a lot of it."

The professor said: "It will hold, it's linked to an energy source below the floor, I just control it."

freeZe took a deep breath. She had decided on which spell she would use, it was the same one her life force had used back in Shadow's summoning chamber. It was quite a crude spell but she wanted to release as much energy as possible. She concentrated on protecting herself first, she knew that as time went on and she got more experienced the protection would eventually become subconscious.

freeZe began casting her spell, her eyes began glowing in an intense green once again. Flame jets started shooting outwards from her, beginning at a low intensity, at least according to freeZe's standards. As the flames intensified, freeZe could feel how her life force travelled towards her skin to then turn into fire. Her robes were entirely unaffected by her spell since they served as an extension of her body for spell casting purposes. In order to use up as much energy as possible, freeZe pushed more life force into her spell than it naturally would have pulled without interaction. The flames inside the barrier turned from red to a bright white, the others probably had to cover their eyes but freeZe wasn't sure since the flames were too dense to look out through.

Half a minute later, freeZe's spell was still going and her life force was only one quarter depleted. This was entirely different from what she experienced in Shadow's summoning chamber, back then she had panicked because of her loss of control. Now she was perfectly calm, she knew that controlling magic had a soothing effect on the mind, it was part of the reason why mages tended to overestimate themselves. She felt nothing that even resembled the early burnout symptoms so freeZe channeled her life force into the spell with all her might. The flames inside the barrier raged on, the barrier itself was noticeably straining to contain the amounts of energy freeZe was unleashing, turning to ever darker shades of purple.

Finally after a total of one and a half minutes, the flames faded and as the last of the heat was absorbed, the now almost opaque barrier dropped as well. This revealed an exhausted, but otherwise fine freeZe. She was supporting her hands with her knees and was breathing heavily, she had almost completely depleted her life force.

"Nothing." She managed to say.

The professor looked a bit surprised. "It's quite rare to have someone with that much life force not experience burnout but I suppose that with your elements it would only make sense to have a very weak connection."

freeZe had reached into her pocket to recharge herself with the crystal, slowly catching her breath again. She didn't say anything but thought about what she had just heard. Maybe her weak connection was the reason why she didn't have much fine control over her magic, there was actually a very good possibility that it was the case. She definitely had to talk to Shadow about this.

* * *

Over the course of the next few hours they practiced various spells from their respective elements. At the end of the lesson the apprentice that had fallen over asked freeZe to stay a couple more minutes while the others left.

The professor seemingly knew why and said: "Since you have a lot of energy at your disposal, you might be able to utilize it for flight."

freeZe said: "Flight sounds useful."

The other apprentice said: "I once tried it myself but since I only have a minor affinity for Air, I didn't even lift off even a tiny bit. I'll demonstrate the spell so you know how it goes."

The apprentice focused and freeZe felt exactly how the spell worked, it was simple, really. Airflow was created downwards and the recoil then propelled the caster upwards or in any direction they desired.

freeZe said: "I guess I'll just repeat that with a higher impulse."

The others both nodded.

freeZe tried to focus her energy slowly at first to then test how much force would be needed to lift her off the ground. Instead, a huge wind blast swept through the room, violently flinging freeZe upwards. The only reason why she didn't hit her head on the ceiling painfully was the professor's quick intervention.

As she slowly floated back to the ground on the professor's spell, freeZe said: "Right."

The professor said: "I suggest not attempting it again here, maybe once you have acquired a bit more… finesse."

* * *

With that freeZe's lesson was complete. She and the other apprentice left the room and then walked off in different directions. freeZe slowly wandered the corridors and eventually ended up back in the entrance hall. She tried handing the receptionist golem her map again. It just made a gesture towards the exit. As soon as freeZe stepped outside, the projected map vanished in her hands.

She looked upwards and saw that the sun was still a few hours from setting, she assumed that her friends were still out, doing whatever they did. After a few moments she decided that it couldn't hurt to visit Carol, she surely would appreciate the company. Besides, her tea was absolutely delicious.


	72. Chapter 71

The building the Royal Guard was located in was to the right of that which contained the palace. The ornaments in the artificial bedrock depicted warriors and war machines.

Unchosen was the first to cross the threshold, the interior was largely made from wood and stone, which was quite a contrast to the quartz walls of the Enchanter Guild. The entrance hall slimmed down into a corridor further back. From what Unchosen could see, the corridor was lined with training rooms. Each training room had a glass wall that allowed it to observe the training without having to open the door.

The Guard soldiers were currently training in various different disciplines. In one room Unchosen could see archers shooting at dummies. In another there were soldiers dueling. In a third room several more soldiers practiced unarmed combat. Quite far at the end there was a room where five Mencur-Besh fought in something that could only be described as something like a disciplined tavern brawl, it went so fast that it was hard to make out what was actually happening.

Ambigious asked: "So, what are we supposed to do now?"

As to answer his question, a soldier came out of a door at the end of the corridor, judging by his decorated uniform he was of fairly high rank.

He asked: "Are you looking for something?"

Before anyone could say anything the soldier said: "Wait, I think I know who you are, I have gotten word that you three would show up today, Captain Bedrock would like to speak with you."

Unchosen asked: "That's his name?"

The soldier turned and motioned to follow him. "The only name we know him by."

They followed the soldier through the door at the end of the corridor, went up a staircase and down another corridor. The soldier opened a door and indicated them to go first.

Unchosen assumed the room to be the captain's room or office, the back wall was lined with portraits of people who probably were previous Guard captains. The other walls were lined with bookshelves and weapon racks. In the middle of the room was the desk where a figure clad in full plate armor was currently sat, writing something down on a piece of paper. This had to be Bedrock.

Bedrock was an enormous man, he was one and a half heads taller than Unchosen and much more muscular than Ambigious, the only visible part of his body were his dark eyes that looked out from behind his visor. To their surprise his armor wasn't made from firesteel, it was made from artificial bedrock, explaining the name he went by. Even in his current sitting position the captain's presence filled the entire room. Although he took notice of them, he first finished writing whatever he was working on before talking.

His visor muffled his deep voice. "I have been expecting you."

TehLulz asked: "Why?"

Bedrock laughed. "I have gotten word that a former Guard captain is in town and has brought his apprentices."

Unchosen said: "Yes, Fire is our mentor."

"Fire, is it? I was never told which former captain." Bedrock pointed at the wall behind him, Fire's portrait was about in the middle of all captains. Bedrock continued: "I came here five hundred years ago so I never served under him but I know some who did, only heard good things."

Bedrock rose up from his desk, picked up the piece of paper and handed it to the soldier who had shown Unchosen and his friends the way.

He said: "That's the patrol schedule for the surrounding woods, the treasurer told me that we are expecting a shipment of silver for the Mage Guild, it would be good to clear out any bandits that may lurk out there."

The soldier gave Bedrock a salute and then quickly left the room.

Bedrock turned to Unchosen and said: "I assume that you came here to train."

Unchosen nodded.

Bedrock started walking towards the door and said: "I can spare some time. Let's see what Fire taught you."

* * *

Unchosen, TehLulz and Ambigious spent hours training with Bedrock and a couple of other soldiers. The Guard soldiers were naturally way superior due to their many years of experience and they hardly pulled their punches, or slashes and stabs for that matter. The training was hard but rewarding, they started off with their preferred weapons but then had to try all manner of things. In the end Bedrock challenged them to a three on one fight and effortlessly beat them.

After their training was concluded, they went and cleaned themselves, then joined Bedrock and the other soldiers they had trained with at a table in the entrance hall.

Bedrock said: "You did well, for how little experience you have you are quite capable fighters."

Still quite out of breath, Unchosen answered: "Thank you."

They exchanged a couple of tales about their past battles. Unchosen silently admitted that, while impressive in its own right, their ghoul kill was nothing compared to what the soldiers of the Guard had fought over the years. One soldier recounted a tale of fighting an undead giant, which they were only able to kill by pinning it down with countless ropes and then driving a sharpened tree trunk into its skull through its ear.

After a while Bedrock excused himself, having to return to his duties. The other soldiers also left soon after. Unchosen, TehLulz and Ambigious stood up and walked out of the Guard's building. They looked around, no sign of Fire, Shadow or freeZe.

TehLulz suggested: "Let's pay Carol a visit while we have time."

Ambigious gave him thumbs up and they started walking, Unchosen leading the way to the tower. When they arrived they found the door unlocked, laughter coming from inside. He carefully opened it and saw that Carol was currently talking to freeZe, who apparently was talking about something that had happened in the Mage Guild.

"May we come in?" Unchosen asked.

Carol looked to the door in surprise and then said: "Sure, there is enough tea for everyone."

They sat down at Carol's table again, freeZe finished her tale about what had happened during her lesson in the Guild. TehLulz followed right up with what had happened at the Guard.

Carol asked: "So, how is Bedrock? I have only ever seen him at parades or sometimes in the streets."

Ambigious said: "Doesn't talk much about himself or his past or anything else for that matter. He's an amazing fighter, punches like a battering ram."

Carol said: "I once heard from a professor at the Mage Guild that magic doesn't affect him, probably because of his armor, he never takes it off. Nobody ever managed to make usable armor from artificial bedrock."

"Huh, didn't know that. Might have to ask Fire about the exact properties some time." Ambigious said.

Suddenly Carol flinched. freeZe asked: "What was that?"

Carol slowly said: "Nothing, really."

freeZe asked: "Anything to do with you casting an Ender spell right now?"

Carol sighed. "You got me. I always keep watch on the eye with my magic. The eye has a unique magical interference that keeps changing, it's like it's whispering. Usually it's quiet, sometimes it's loud, sometimes it's really loud. I still have to get used to it, the sudden changes often surprise me."

Unchosen saw how freeZe quickly exchanged a glance with TehLulz. He knew neither about enchanting nor about magic but something about this whispering seemed odd to them.

"Anyways," Carol said "anyone want some more tea?"

They sat with Carol for about half an hour before there was a knock on the door. Carol stood up and found Fire and Shadow outside.

"Come in." She said.

Shadow shook her head. "We actually just came to pick up our apprentices, we need to start preparing for our departure since we won't be staying in Rockhaven for too much longer."

They quickly finished their tea and then said goodbye to Carol.

While walking back to Shadow's house, Fire said: "I assume you all had success in your training?"

They just nodded, at this point they were quite tired.

Fire explained: "In two days we'll have the Axe, the king agreed to hand it over during a banquet. The Axe has been in Rockhaven ever since and people won't accept giving it away without a bit of ceremony."

freeZe asked: "Any plans for tomorrow?"

Shadow said: "In fact yes, I thought that we could go to the lower districts and have some fun, you aren't in Rockhaven often and you could probably use some relaxation after our journey and today."

With those words Shadow unlocked the door to her house. Shadow opened the door and went inside, there was the smell of food in the air, the others followed in anticipation.


	73. Chapter 72

After they were done eating, Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen quickly went to bed, exhausted from their training. freeZe admitted to herself that she wasn't faring much better but her exhaustion was not physical in nature and she didn't actually feel tired. She decided to sit on the couch in the living room with Fire and Shadow for a bit longer.

freeZe asked: "Did you do anything apart from negotiating?"

Fire said: "No, not really. The most time consuming part was having to wait for our audience, the negotiations were over quite quickly. The king may not be Eye-and-Claws but he sees the Mencur-Besh as valuable allies and is generally sympathetic towards us. The only reason why the Axe is still in Rockhaven is because it is the only known thing to be able to destroy artificial bedrock in an acceptable amount of time."

Shadow continued: "He is aware of the origin of Rockhaven, which made it significantly easier to negotiate for the Axe. He understands that the Mencur-Besh have similar reasons for wanting the Axe in a safe place and he doesn't want such a powerful tool in the hands of someone who wants to wage war on his city or his allies. We convinced him that the safest place for the Axe is in the custody of the Mencur-Besh."

freeZe asked: "Is there anyone who would be against giving the Axe away?"

Shadow said: "Yes, the Mage Guild representative said that there is an unusual amount of disagreement in the Guild. The archmage doesn't want to hear any of it though, she had the last word and she agrees with the King. We also heard surprisingly similar things from the Enchanter Guild. The Guard and the alchemists almost unanimously support the decision. Most other guilds are indifferent."

freeZe said: "Makes sense, the mages and enchanters don't like giving up power and it's only natural for the Guard to stand behind the king's decisions."

Without saying anything, Fire stood up and left the room, presumably going to his own, freeZe had a sneaking suspicion that he hadn't slept the night before. When she thought back on the day, she suddenly remembered something.

She asked: "Shadow, do the eyes whisper?"

Shadow looked at her apprentice and slightly tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

freeZe explained: "When I talked to Carol earlier she said that she was sensing some kind of magical interference from the eye."

"That should not be happening." Shadow said quickly. After a short pause she added: "And yet it is. I just checked, there is a significant amount of energy seeping from the eye, the interference only goes out a few meters but it still shouldn't be happening."

freeZe asked: "Any idea why?"

Shadow thought for a moment and then seemed to realize something. "I think I know why it is doing that. About five hundred years back there was a very unstable teleportation routed through the eye network, the target site was in the woods just outside of Rockhaven. Thousands of people were part of it, the magical surge must have damaged the eye in some way."

"What now?"

"It's good that you told me, I can only assume that the instability grows stronger over time. The damaged eye represents a flaw in the network, fragments of information are seeping out. The network uses the demonic language to transfer information, that's probably why it sounds like incomprehensible whispering."

freeZe asked: "What will we do about it?"

Shadow sighed. "Nothing. We can't afford fix or replace the eye since that would require my direct attention and we don't have that kind of time. Destroying it would severely cripple the network. We just have to get this Axe business done fast and hope nothing happens until we have the Ban Hammer."

freeZe asked: "Which is about how likely?"

Shadow said: "I can't really make any estimates about that."

Shadow stood up and poured herself a glass of tearfruit juice, then they both just sat there for a few minutes.

When she had finished her drink she asked: "So, since you don't seem tired enough to sleep, how about another lesson in theoretical magic?"

freeZe asked: "You told me that we had all of the relevant theory covered, I'm not complaining though."

Shadow said: "You are right, what I'm going to tell you isn't relevant to you but I thought that you should know. It's about Void magic."

"Didn't we talk about Void magic already?"

Shadow explained: "We did but what I told you back then wasn't the entire truth. Back in the base I didn't really know you but our travels have shown me a lot about you. I know that I can trust you with this."

freeZe said: "Alright, let me hear it."

Shadow stood up and started pacing around the room. "What I told you about Void magic so far is true, it is the counterpart to Ender magic. While Ender magic allows you to apply the laws of physics at your will, you are still bound by them. Void magic is what defines those laws. Uncontrolled Void magic represents the lack of rules, which is why it annihilates everything. The reason it can't be controlled is because it's the only thing that could permanently reshape how the world on the server works. Void magic is essentially the software in its raw form upholding the rules that allow this world to exist."

freeZe said: "Interesting but you are right, I don't see how this is relevant."

"The admins usually don't go on the server themselves but they still need someone to take care of some things in here. You know, people sometimes break the code of conduct. They tasked me with it and gave me some manner of control over Void magic so that I could apprehend the rule breakers no matter what. I am very limited in when I can use it though, it's only when I know for a fact someone broke the rules or clearly intends to break them and can't be dissuaded."

freeZe suddenly remembered something. "Back in the arena Fire mentioned the admins' enforcer. That's you, right?"

Shadow nodded. "It is important for the safety of everyone on the server that it remains undisturbed and secret. People joining are aware of this but occasionally forget or believe that there would be no consequences. There are also people who just like to make trouble, the human mind is easily tempted. That's where I come in. I track them down and confront them, though usually I let them off with a warning."

freeZe began to understand. "Unless they do it again."

Shadow nodded again. "That's where actual punishments come in, one of the harshest is being banned from the server. Although there are some people who require more than that, if someone wants to harm the server as a whole or expose the project I am forced to remove all memories associated with the server."

freeZe asked: "Could you theoretically kill people as well?"

"I can and I have. Only a small number, for those there really was no other way of being absolutely sure, a memory wipe can easily be undone if they left themselves hints. Those people were malicious beyond any doubt." Shadow briefly paused. "Don't look at me like that."

freeZe slowly said. "So, people in the real world are actually killed to uphold the secret?"

Shadow's pacing sped up and her voice got increasingly angry. "Yes and they knew that it could happen, it says in the damn contract. I have looked at their memories thoroughly and it still eludes me how some people can be so ignorant. Letting them live would endanger the safety of everyone on the server, if I hadn't killed them something like the hacker situation would have happened a lot sooner. I don't really have a problem with this, they had every opportunity to back down."

freeZe tried to ask something but all she got out was "Why…" before Shadow interrupted her. "If you want to know the reason, I'm doing this for Fire… Peter. He's been through so many bad things in his life and the server is the only place he has left where he is still truly free from his burdens. I will not let anyone take this world from him, not after all he has done to set me free as well!"

Suddenly Shadow stopped and buried her face in her hands. freeZe was unsure about what to do, Shadow had always been very restrained with her emotions in her presence. freeZe slowly stood up and walked over to her mentor, put her arm around her and slowly guided her back to the couch, then sat down beside her.

Shadow looked up to freeZe, freeZe expected to see tears in her eyes but then she remembered the nature of Shadow's body.

Shadow said: "When I heard that hackers took over the server I thought about killing them, when I heard that they were holding people hostage I knew that was what I had to do. It turned out that I couldn't, my power only works on people with a direct connection. I felt powerless because I was unable to help my brother. I couldn't live with letting him down." She paused. "I am scared, freeZe. I of all people. I know that if we don't succeed my brother will die because I was unable to save him."

freeZe said: "These are strange times. A few months back I would have never thought to be in this situation. The first days in the mine were hell, I probably would have lost my mind if it hadn't been for Fire. Trust me, I hate the hackers just as much as you do, we all do. You can't blame yourself for something they did. We are well on our way to stopping them."

Shadow sighed. "I know, I know. I really hope this whole plan works out." Shadow weakly laughed. "And to think that I just wanted to finish telling you something I left unfinished."

freeZe didn't know for how long they sat there but at some point Shadow had completely regained her composure but still stayed.

When she finally stood up, Shadow asked: "freeZe, can you do me a favor?"

"Yes."

"Please don't tell the others about this."

freeZe nodded and stood up, she went upstairs to her room and thought about what had just happened.


	74. Chapter 73

There were three entrances to the lower districts of Rockhaven, one in each of the city's main areas. To enter you had to go down a fairly narrow spiral staircase, after some time you arrived in what people called "The City below Rockhaven". While the lower districts were by no means a city in their own right, it was easy to see why they may not seem to be part of Rockhaven. Instead of wide open streets the lower districts consisted of comparatively narrow tunnels, only barely wide enough for three people to walk beside each other. Those tunnels branched and intersected, some went up, others went down. If you walked far enough you would inevitably end up where you began, there were no dead ends in the lower districts.

The only thing that reminded you that you still were in Rockhaven was the fact that the walls and ceilings were made from artificial bedrock. Although the tunnels had no innate glow like the streets on the surface, any touch resulted in an iridescent ripple of light that carried surprisingly far. If you wanted to know where other people were, you just needed to follow the light.

While the surface of Rockhaven was entirely dedicated to production, commerce and living, the lower districts were all about entertainment. While walking the tunnels you would come across many bars that invited guests inside with brightly glowing signs, some of them magical in nature, others controlled by clever redstone engineering. Different bars catered to different audiences. Some had wooden interiors, large tables with cozy benches, fireplaces and a pianist providing a quiet and relaxing atmosphere. Others often hosted live bands or comedians. Another kind could be best described as the equivalent of a dance club, music of magical origin and flashing lights provided the perfect backdrop for not necessarily coordinated but nonetheless enthusiastic dancing. There were also facilities that provided beds to people who didn't feel sober enough to find their way back to their houses on the surface or to those who simply didn't want to leave the lower districts for some time. Here and there you could also see the odd shop selling things that would not catch on up on the surface, this was also a way for vendors to directly sell their goods without having to go through one of the guilds, with all related risks and benefits.

* * *

TehLulz jumped down the last few steps in anticipation, during breakfast Shadow had told them quite a bit about the lower districts and he was curious about what would happen in the tunnels below Rockhaven.

Ambigious and TehLulz were dressed quite casually, they had decided to treat this no differently from going out in the real world. Unchosen was wearing a suit again, to nobody's surprise. What did surprise TehLulz however was that Fire was wearing a suit as well, with a magically projected white rose attached to his collar no less. This was actually the first time so far they had seen him in anything other than his white or grey nether wool clothes or his armor.

Shadow had been wearing her robe when they left the house but somewhere along the way down it had transformed into a sleek black dress, so black even that it was difficult to see where fabric stopped and skin began, which probably was the intention. freeZe was wearing a shorter, slightly more elaborate dress, instead of black it was fiery red.

TehLulz asked: "You two know your way around down here, where do we go first?"

Shadow said: "I looked through the planned acts and I discovered that there is a mercenary band playing in one of the bars tonight."

Ambigious asked: "What exactly is a mercenary band aside from the obvious meaning?"

Shadow explained: "Quite simple, it's a group of mercenaries who you can hire for both killing and making music. Their instruments are quite inventive but usually either the killing or the music part falls short, there are only few mercenary bands that can do both well, the one we'll see is one of those few."

They walked quietly through the tunnels, their steps sending rainbow colored light across the artificial bedrock surfaces. They passed by a few bars, various kinds of sounds could be heard from within. There were also many people in various states of inebriation in the tunnels. After a short while TehLulz had completely lost track of how he would get back to the entrance, the tunnels all looked similarly and were built seemingly randomly, he was sure that there was a system but not one that he could see.

They reached their destination after a bit more walking, the sign above the door said "Dungeon". The interior was made from stone bricks and cobblestone, a lot of it had moss growing in the cracks, although TehLulz assumed it to be something artificial that just looked like moss instead of actual moss. The whole bar was heavily themed after a monster dungeon, as the name implied. Chests were placed in decorative spots and the tables looked like mob spawner cages, they even had slowly spinning projections of zombies or skeletons in them. To the right side of the room there was a bar counter where various drinks were served, to the back there was an elevated area currently acting as a stage for the mercenary band, which hadn't started playing yet.

They sat down at the only free table, it seemed like this mercenary band had a fair amount of fans in Rockhaven. TehLulz took a closer look at the stage. The band members were setting up their instruments, which were quite unusual. The drums consisted of various pieces of armor, the drumsticks were two small maces. One instrument consisted of a shield with a sharp edge and a sword that had been roughed up on one of its flat sides, the instrument seemed to serve as a very odd violin. Then there was a quite self-explanatory battleaxe with guitar strings. The band members themselves were clad in studded leather armor which quite clearly was not what they wore in battle.

The bartender left her post to bring the band some drinks, a few minutes later they were ready. TehLulz sipped his own drink as the first song started. The band had two vocalists, a man with a clear baritone voice and a woman who had a voice deeper and rougher than TehLulz expected. Their first song unsurprisingly told the tale of a battle, it was unclear if it was one of their own or if they recounted a legend. The sound was as unusual as the instruments it originated from, the rhythmic banging of maces on chestplates and helmets combined with the metallic vibration of the shield and the axe-guitar made for an interesting experience.

Shadow said: "They're good, right?"

Ambigious nodded. "Nothing like I've ever heard before but it's definitely good."

A bit later Shadow stood up between songs and walked over to the band, it seemed like she was requesting a specific song. She came back smiling with satisfaction.

Shadow said: "Listen to the lyrics, freeZe."

The song was quite a contrast to the previous warlike ones. This one had comedic lyrics in the style of a love song, it was about a man falling in love with a mage and the resulting damages. The song was obviously not to be taken at face value but rather poked fun at some of the stereotypes about mages.

Shadow said: "That is one of their oldest ones, let's just say a good acquaintance of mine was significantly involved in its inspiration."

freeZe said: "Something's telling me that you're more than acquainted with that person."

Shadow grinned. "Possibly."

They sat there and listened to the band's songs for another hour, then Fire said: "There wouldn't be much of a point to this if you four just followed us around, the lower districts are all about surprises and exploration. You need to go out there without us and see what you come across. It's pretty much without dangers, we are still in Rockhaven after all."

Ambigious looked at TehLulz and said: "Let's go then, there are dancefloors to be conquered."

TehLulz really admired Ambigious' confidence, his own experiences with dancefloors were limited and what he had done had little to do with conquest.

Shadow took a sip from her drink and said: "I will be here with Fire for a bit longer, if against all odds there is trouble, we'll know how to find you."

The four of them stood up and left the bar together. At the next intersection freeZe turned left, Unchosen turned right and Ambigious and TehLulz both went straight ahead. It was time to discover some of the secrets of the lower districts.


	75. Chapter 74

As they walked through the tunnels TehLulz asked Ambigious: "Any special plans?"

Ambigious replied: "Nope, we'll see what we find. Not going to drink though, I doubt that we'll ever come back here and I don't want my memory clouded."

TehLulz nodded. "Good idea."

They kept on walking, taking turns at random. Ambigious made sure to at least construct a crude mental map of the tunnels they had been through, which got increasingly harder as they moved through the various layers. They stumbled upon a small shop selling various kinds of honey at surprisingly affordable prices, not just according to Rockhaven standards. Each of them bought a small flask-like jar and continued exploring. After half an hour of walking they found another of the three entrances to the lower districts, the amount of people here was accordingly higher. Ambigious believed to remember that this was the one close to the palace and the Guard. Sure enough, most of the people here wore the Guard's off-duty uniform. The people didn't pay the two of them too much mind as they walked past. That was until one started talking to them.

He didn't have any features out of the ordinary, brown hair, cut short as was preferred in the Guard, brown eyes. He was tall and overall had a muscular build, which was no surprise.

He said: "You two, weren't you the ones who trained with Captain Bedrock yesterday?"

Ambigious replied: "Sure are. Why do you ask?"

The guardsman said: "You held your own pretty well, can't say that about every outsider. I can show you around a bit if want. I'm Daron by the way."

Ambigious looked at TehLulz, who nodded.

He said: "Sure, can't hurt. I'm Ambigious and that's TehLulz."

Daron told them that he knew a relatively hidden bar that usually had very few patrons but excellent food. He took the lead and they followed. After a few turns it was easy to see why this specific bar was only known to few, one of the corridors was unusually narrow, Ambigious would have walked past it without a second thought had Daron not shown him the way. After the narrow passage the corridors expanded to their usual width again, a few more minutes later they arrived.

Bar's name was "Little Drandin", much to their surprise, the last thing they would have guessed to find in the depths of Rockhaven was something referencing the mining town that most people on the server thought was only a myth. As they passed through the entrance, Ambigious instantly recognized the style, it was built almost exactly like a miniaturized version of the meal hall in the actual Drandin.

As Daron had promised, only a few other people were seated at the single long table in the middle of the room. They sat down a few seats away from the others to be able to talk undisturbed.

Daron said: "I'll get you a serving of today's meal."

He soon returned and handed them their plates, the meal very much resembled what they had eaten in Drandin in appearance and in taste, they couldn't complain.

As they ate, Daron asked: "So, how did you end up as apprentices to a former Guard captain?"

As Ambigious was currently too busy chowing down on his meal, TehLulz answered: "We started off as farmers near the Deepsand Desert, were captured into slavery and then freed by Fire and since he needed apprentices we decided to stay."

Ambigious nodded. A slightly different version of the story they had told to Aurone was best suited here since everything but the farmer origin was true, it just neglected to talk about their mission.

At the mention of Fire's name Daron seemed surprised for a split second but didn't say anything about it, instead he asked: "For how long have you been his apprentices now?"

This time Ambigious answered. "For a couple of months."

Over the next half hour Daron kept talking to them, occasionally asking about their past but also sharing his own stories about his life in the Guard. The talking had made them thirsty so Daron got up to get them all some water, it seemed that he was friends with the owner of the bar because Ambigious never saw him actually pay for what he got.

When Daron came back he handed Ambigious his glass. In the short moment where their hands touched, a rush of information flooded Ambigious' brain. At first he didn't know what it was but then he recognized the pattern, it was a resonance he had first felt in Fire's base, then numerous times again in Drandin, it seemed like Daron had an Eye-and-Claws mark as well. As Ambigious focused on it, the information manifested as a branching hierarchical tree before his mental eye, one node was highlighted. According to that node, Daron was somewhere in the middle of the ranks, he was trusted but not involved in any of the more sensitive Mencur-Besh affairs, his role was listed as recruiter.

Suddenly everything made sense, the real reason why they were in this very drandinian bar was that Daron thought that they would make a good addition to the Eye-and-Claws, not knowing that they were already a part. Daron seemed to realize this as well since he suddenly was at a loss for words.

"Oh." Was all he said for now.

He handed TehLulz his glass as well and seemed to draw the same conclusion.

Daron sat back down and took a deep breath, then quietly said: "We can speak openly here, this bar is only known to Eye-and-Claws. I know it's against protocol but I'm curious, why did Fire return here?"

Before Ambigious said anything he had to carefully choose his words so that they would not go against the list of things he wasn't allowed to tell that had started burning in his mind after he had looked at Daron's mark.

He said in a low voice: "We're here to retrieve the Axe for safekeeping, the king already agreed and now it is only a matter of days until it leaves the city."

Daron said: "Huh. I thought it had something to do with something else entirely. You must know, I have been in Rockhaven for a very long time and I also served back when Fire was Guard captain. One day we got word that a lich lord had ascended from the expansive caverns under Threepeak Mountain and started reanimating powerful creatures. The undead army then started marching in one direction, too powerful to be burned by the sun and too numerous to be stopped by anything else. Of course, this is usually not a concern of Rockhaven since the army would miss the city by a large margin but Fire insisted on dispatching the entire Royal Guard in order to stop that army."

TehLulz nodded. "He mentioned something like that once but never told us any details."

Daron continued: "It took some convincing but the king agreed with him that if left alone such an army could wipe out an entire continent if not more. In the end not only the Guard but about a third of Rockhaven's total population left, many citizens are well versed in the art of battle and having mages and alchemists with you is useful when going to war. We managed to first ambush the undead army in a canyon and wiped out about half of their forces. After that, it got difficult. When backed by a necromancer, an undead army is much more resilient than a living one, they don't need provisions, they don't tire, they don't break and if they aren't turned to dust they just rise as newly formed abominations given enough time. That and they just add any fallen opponents to their ranks."

Daron paused to take a drink of water. "We more or less had them under siege in that canyon but that also meant we couldn't just crush them with one decisive push. After a few days we surprisingly got reinforcements in the form thousands of Mencur-Besh, I had never seen so many of them in one place. They were what finally turned the tide but of course as in any war many of our people died as well, a few came back but the large part stayed dead. After we returned to Rockhaven, Fire announced his retirement, not because he had done badly but because at that point he had been captain for a few hundred years and thought that the Guard and Rockhaven as a whole might be a bit too reliant on him and losing him in dire times would have a much worse impact than him leaving and making way for a successor. That was also the day me and some of the other Guard members joined the Eye-and-Claws."

Ambigious said: "Ah, I see. So you thought that his return may mean that there is something big ahead?"

Daron said: "In essence, yes. Now, I do not doubt Bedrock by any means but having someone as experienced as Fire in town might be good if that is true."

TehLulz said: "So, I know that you came down here to recruit us but we are also here for the first time and we may need a bit of guidance."

Daron asked: "You're asking me to go party with you?" A grin came to his face. "That. Is something I'm more than happy to do."

The three of them got up from the table and left Little Drandin. On the way out Ambigious noticed a small engraving above the doorframe, it was the Eye-and-Claws, unsurprising in hindsight. They made their way back through the narrow corridor and then started walking.

Daron asked: "Has anyone ever told you about the lowest point of the lower districts? It's worth seeing."

With those words Daron took the lead once again, leading them through the tunnels with a certainty that they only had observed in Fire when he had guided them through the Nether Fortress. Ambigious tried his best to keep his mental map in a relatively orderly condition and as he was just about to stop trying to expand it, they were there.

They stood in a populated corridor that was wider than usual, the corridors branching off of it only went up. In the middle of it there was an entrance to an establishment that was very fittingly named "Rock Bottom", Ambigious could faintly hear music of probably magical origin coming from within.

Daron said: "Here it is, the best place to satisfy your dancing needs in all of the lower districts."

Daron went through the entrance first, followed by Ambigious and TehLulz. This promised to be a very interesting time.


	76. Chapter 75

The interior of Rock Bottom was quite spacious but the area around the entrance was still very crowded. In the walls and ceiling were crystals of different sizes and colors, which seemed to be the origin of both the flashing lights and the music. They tried to make their way further inwards, pushing themselves past people in various states of inebriation and dancing intensity.

He didn't know exactly how but after a few minutes of trying to get through the crowd Ambigious had completely lost TehLulz and Daron. This wasn't the first time this had happened to him, being as short as he was meant he couldn't get an overview if he didn't do anything short of jumping. Ambigious didn't particularly mind being on his own though, it gave him the opportunity to explore Rock Bottom a bit more.

After he had finally managed to get through the crowd in the entrance area, Ambigious discovered that Rock Bottom had a collection of hallways branching off the entrance area, each one guarded by an imposing looking earth Mencur-Besh bouncer. Ambigious approached one of them, he noticed a sign above the hallway, it read "The Red Zone".

The bouncer spoke in a rumbling voice that was clearly audible even over the music: "This one's full, try that one over there. Some people just left."

The bouncer pointed to another hallway. Ambigious nodded and made his way over there, this hallway was labelled "Green Grotto". The bouncer there stepped out of the way and let Ambigious in.

The hallway was dark apart from the faint rainbow lights that radiated from Ambigious' feet outwards. As he walked inwards, the music faded and was replaced by a different type. It had something of a slow heartbeat over powerful yet calm melodies. The corridor widened into a somewhat circular room that was lit with entirely green crystals, pulsating with the music. The room had an elevated dancefloor on one side, a bar on the other, the rest of the room was filled with low tables and comfortable couches and seats. The room was decently full but nowhere near as crowded as the entrance hall, which was probably why only a limited number of people were allowed at a time.

Ambigious took a quick look around the room, TehLulz and Daron were nowhere to be found, neither was anyone else he recognized. After looking around a bit more someone did catch his eye though, a curly-haired woman with strangely glowing eyes. A few seconds later he recognized her, it was Undira, the enchantress that had accompanied them into the Creeper's Tongue after the ritual. She was sitting alone on one of the couches near the edge of the room, an opaque bottle in front of her. Ambigious decided to approach her.

She noticed him and spoke first: "Oh, hello. Weren't you one of Fire's apprentices?"

He sat down next to her and said: "Ambigious is the name. We didn't talk much in the restaurant."

Undira said: "Nice to meet you, what brings you down here?"

Ambigious chuckled. "Presumably the same thing that brings you down here, drink, food, dancing, various other fun things."

Undira nodded and asked: "First time in Rock Bottom?"

"First time in the lower districts in general, never been to Rockhaven before. I do know my way around parties though."

"Does Fire happen to be here as well?" Undira asked with a slight grin.

Ambigious knowingly grinned as well. "Not here but somewhere, he told us that it's best to experience the lower districts on your own. I'm pretty sure he's not far though."

Undira asked: "Excuse me but… how long has it been since we had that meal? It's easy to lose track of time down here, especially in certain establishments."

Ambigious answered: "It should be almost precisely a day if my own sense of time hasn't completely betrayed me."

"Huh. Time does fly, guess that's what staying-awake-potions do to you. Maybe the glowstone had some part in it too."

Ambigious said: "I'd have to ask my friend Unchosen on the specifics of that interaction, he's the alchemist among us. No idea where he is though, he wandered off on his own."

"You don't suppose you could ask him to brew a few things for me?"

"What kind of things? If it's love potions then no, he told me that those don't exist, which Fire confirmed."

Undira laughed. "No, nothing of the sort. Just a few specialized potions that help with enchanting, I used to have someone who made those for me but she left the town to hunt for rare ingredients. She didn't leave the full recipe so I'm still looking for someone who can recreate that sort of thing."

Ambigious nodded. "I can definitely ask him to try, he's quite good."

Undira leaned forward and emptied the bottle in front of her, from what Ambigious saw the liquid within was infused with more glowstone, which Undira seemed to be quite fond of.

Undira then got up and asked: "So, Ambigious. Ready for the dancefloor?"

Ambigious decided to omit the cheesy lines that his brain cooked up and just followed her. To his surprise she wasn't referring to the dancefloor in the room they were in right now, instead she practically dragged him out of the Green Grove and straight into the Red Zone, which happened to be open again.

The Red Zone was fundamentally different to the previous room, the lighting was red, which was expected. Almost the entire crystal studded room consisted of an erratically flashing dancefloor with no tables or chairs anywhere. There were two bars on opposite sides. The music was also a lot louder and more energetic than in the other parts of Rock Bottom. The dancefloor itself was packed, there was just enough room for everyone. There were spots where people stood aside to give a more skilled dancer room while they watched. Ambigious even spotted some dancing Mencur-Besh, he quickly recognized some of the moves from the close combat training he had observed in the Guard, just without the impacts.

Undira kept dragging him further, when they had reached a spot that she seemed to like, they started dancing. Ambigious had always estimated his dancing skills to be above average but nothing special, it turned out that Undira was on about the same level, which worked out well.

* * *

Ambigious wasn't sure for how long they had been dancing, though after some time Undira leaned in and said: "I'll need to get going, been awake for more than two days and the potion's starting to wear off."

Ambigious replied with jokingly exaggerated disappointment: "Aww, it was just starting to be fun."

Undira laughed, then said: "See you around Ambigious. Don't forget about those potions."

After those words she pushed herself through the crowd and out of Ambigious' sight. He kept dancing for a bit longer but eventually left the Red Zone to have a look at some of the other areas of Rock Bottom. The one he tried next was called "Blue River", its theme was even calmer than that of the Green Grove, the melodies there were slow and had traits of classical music. The room's layout was similar though, just with even fancier seats.

He decided to just sit down for a while and observe the room. The people on the tables had conversations on various topics, the dancers danced slow dances, overall it was quite relaxing.

As he watched the dancers, he spotted Shadow among them, dancing with an unknown man. A few moments later, he spotted her again, dancing with another man, then again, dancing with a woman. Ambigious managed to count five different Shadows on the dancefloor, obviously they were projections, he knew that much. Though, something was missing, Ambigious scanned the room and after a few more seconds he found what he was looking for: The real Shadow, sitting at the bar with a blue and faintly glowing drink.

He got up, walked over to her and sat down on the vacant stool next to her.

Without looking aside, Shadow said: "Hello Ambigious."

Ambigious replied: "Shadow, what brings you down here?"

She smiled. "Oh, everyone ends up in Rock Bottom eventually. As far as I am aware only Fire isn't here, he had some things to do."

As Shadow talked, Ambigious noticed that the music had suddenly become quieter and then was drowned out completely by the colossal silence that now filled the room. Everybody was still dancing and moving their mouths just as if nothing happened. At first he wasn't sure what was happening, but then he felt it, or he believed to feel something.

He asked: "What spell is that?"

Shadow said: "I just wanted to talk to you in private. Nobody can hear us and we can't hear anything that happens outside."

Ambigious was confused. "Talk to me about what?"

Shadow replied: "You said it yourself. You recognized me as the caster of the spell and I'm pretty sure that it was more than simple reasoning that lead you to that conclusion."

"Don't know how but I just knew."

Shadow said: "When I found out that freeZe was a mage I wondered if you were one as well, it's usually a trait found in all siblings instead of just one."

Ambigious said: "Hmm… I never really thought about that. To me magic was always this strange force that did things that are difficult to understand. I once talked to freeZe about it and she explained it to me, wasn't too hard if you know what's actually going on."

"While we were at the Creeper's Tongue I got curious and scanned you for your life force, which is quite difficult if it's not awakened. I found out that you have about the same amount as your sister but you completely lack affinities towards elements."

Ambigious asked: "So, I would be a mage if I had those?"

Shadow nodded. "What I just now noticed is that you also have your sister's sensitivity for magic. In short, you're able to detect and examine spells but you can't cast them."

Ambigious scratched his chin. "Huh. Might be useful."

Shadow said: "That's why I told you just now, we need any edge we can get for this mission."

"Right. I assume that Fire's getting ready for tomorrow?"

"Yes, he's preparing a short speech. Tradition and all that."

Ambigious asked: "So, our plan for tomorrow is to attend the banquet, get the Axe and then get out?"

"If everything goes according to plan, yes."

Ambigious said: "Which we can't guarantee, as usual."

Shadow smiled. "It will probably go according to plan, or according to a plan at least."

After Shadow had said those words, Ambigious could feel her spell fading and the other sounds returning, sounding unnaturally loud after the complete silence.

They just sat there for a few minutes, Shadow slowly finishing her drink.

When she was done, Ambigious said in an overly refined voice: "Care for a dance m'lady?" He tipped an imaginary hat.

Shadow couldn't help but chuckle, took his hand and said: "Why not?"

They walked over to the dancefloor, Ambigious nodded in the direction of the Shadow doppelgangers and said: "And as opposed to those people, I know that I'm not dancing with a projection."

Shadow smiled. "That you do."


	77. Chapter 76

It was late at night when he left the Mage Guild, probably past midnight. The nights in Rockhaven were no different from the days temperature wise. Indeed, no aspect of the air changed for as long as the wards above the city existed. The streets were quite empty during the night, most people either slept, were in the lower districts or worked night shifts in their respective guilds. Only occasionally did other people cross his path, they didn't pay him much mind, he was a familiar face in Rockhaven.

As he walked, the artificial bedrock below his feet emitted gentle pulses of light in addition to the usual ambient light it provided. The street he was on was one of the three main ones, he was walking home after a day of work at the Guild. Before taking a right into one of the smaller alleys he looked back to the center square. The eye looked at him like it looked at everyone, though he wasn't sure if it actually did, it might as well be looking through him or not looking at all.

He didn't like the eye, it stood for everything wrong with Rockhaven. Everything on the surface had some kind of purpose. Every building served production, sale, housing, defense or government. Except for the tower and the eye, neither served any real purpose besides tradition. At least that's what most people thought. He knew better, though not by much. The eye was here for a reason, it had been put in Rockhaven to serve some purpose. What purpose that was exactly was unknown to him but he knew that it had something to do with a certain faction that kept sticking their scaled noses where they didn't belong.

He was so immersed in his thoughts that he initially didn't notice the figure leaning against a wall ahead of him. Normally he would have just ignored it but that specific wall it was leaning against had engravings of nether wart blossoms, it was the wall that belonged to his house. The figure was averagely tall and wore a bright white cloak that completely concealed its face and any other features that could be used to identify it.

Even before he could ask anything, the figure spoke: "How much do you know?"

Just like its appearance, the figure's voice was vague, so vague even that it was impossible to tell if the figure was a woman or a man. Usually this meant one of a few things, either the voice was magically or alchemically altered or the figure was a golem, a projection or a demon. Which one of those was true didn't matter right now, only that the figure or whoever sent it absolutely did not want to be identified.

He answered: "About what?"

The figure said: "Don't play dumb. You know exactly what I am talking about. I might be able to help you, depending on your answer."

He certainly knew what the figure meant and he also knew that the figure knew that he at least knew something. He also knew that the figure probably was not someone to easily mess with.

He sighed. "Fine. But not here out on the streets."

He walked up to his door and unlocked it, then signaled the figure to go in first. It pushed itself away from the wall and walked into his house. No sounds came from its steps. He followed and closed the door behind him. They both sat down in his living room.

"Alright." He said. "I know that the Mencur-Besh and their associates placed the eye in Rockhaven and are influencing affairs beyond their voting power in the guilds."

The figure said: "Correct so far. Anything else?"

"Any attempts of removing them from the city so far have failed because of their intelligence network."

"Correct again."

He slowly said: "And I… believe that we have found a flaw in their system."

The figure said: "That was what I was looking for."

He asked: "So, now that I told you how much I know, shouldn't you tell me why?"

The figure said: "I also want them out of the city. Not violently but I still want them out. I believe Rockhaven should be given an opportunity to develop without them supervising it."

He said: "We agree on that front. Now, one question remains. It took me a long time to figure out only those few scraps of information, you seem to know a lot more. From where?"

The figure said: "I am one of them, one of their 'associates' as you called them. Rockhaven is very costly to keep control of and those resources could be used on other things."

He slowly nodded in disbelief. "So, you're willing to flat out betray them?"

"Oh no, it's far from betrayal. Just exerting a bit more 'voting power' than I should have."

He laughed. "I see where this is going. What kind of help can you offer us?"

The figure said: "Information and perhaps a few more people who share my point of view."

He said: "Alright, what have you got?"

The figure said: "That banquet tomorrow, do you know its purpose?"

"I heard things but nothing that seems relevant."

"They are taking the Axe of Eric the Viking. If you were not aware, that axe is one of the few things older than the Mencur-Besh and it is capable of destroying artificial bedrock. They don't want it in the city because it would be a powerful tool in an uprising or a war."

He said: "That is interesting, I already have a few ideas on how to use this to set up a diversion so that we have time can think of something."

With those words he stood up and went upstairs. He walked into his bedroom and quickly unlocked a safe hidden behind a painting above his bed, it was cliché but so far it had worked to keep things hidden. Inside the safe was a book where he wrote down all things relevant to his plan, including people who were part of it. Next to the book was a silver dagger and next to that was what he was looking for. A wooden box he obtained in Redwater, engraved with the sigil of the Mencur-Besh. He took the box, locked the safe and put the painting back on the wall. As he came back down the stairs he noticed that the figure had not moved one bit since he had left. It was strange really, he usually prided himself in being a talented Life mage and empath but he was completely unable to read anything from the cloaked figure. Usually he wasn't so quick to trust either but his partners were getting impatient and he feared that his entire effort would collapse if nothing happened soon. If the figure had wanted to eliminate him it would have done so as soon as he had told it what he knew.

He sat back down and opened the box. Inside, safely bedded in nether wool padding, was a small flask that contained a green, faintly glowing liquid.

The figure said: "Shineroot essence. Fast acting and undetectable."

He said: "Alright then, you seem to already know where this is going. Let me tell you all about how I intend to delay the Axe leaving Rockhaven."

* * *

He spent hours working out the details of his plan with the figure that still hadn't show even a sliver of emotion or changed its posture. The sun was already rising when they were done.

He said: "Now that everything's decided, it's time for you to do your part."

The figure said: "Of course."

It picked up the flask standing on the table, its long sleeves concealing its hands, naturally. Without a further word the figure stood up and left through the door. He followed shortly after but somewhat expectedly the figure was already gone by the time he looked out the door.

He deeply inhaled, there was something different about the air today, probably only to him. It was a very peculiar scent that was impossible to describe, many denied that it existed at all but he knew it well. It had been a long time since he had last encountered it in this clarity.

Revolution was in the air!


	78. Chapter 77

Carol was not used to being considered important, up until now she had just been an assistant teacher at the university with dreams of becoming a professor one day. Now she had been invited to a highly official banquet at the king's court. This was because as a tower keeper she held one of Rockhaven's most respected positions, save for guild leaders and the ruler. She had not fully realized her importance until the messenger explicitly told her about it.

Now she was sitting in the ballroom of the royal palace and not at one of the smaller tables systematically scattered throughout the room. She sat at the large curved table where the king sat with his advisors, the guild leaders and guests of honor. In front of Carol was an empty plate with cutlery to both sides, the food and drink would later be served by demons, she knew that much about the royal banquets at least.

At the apex of the table sat King Hadrin Lichslayer of Rockhaven, the current ruler. The "of Rockhaven" was not part of his second name but of his royal title, the second name itself came from Rockhaven's campaign against the lich lord of Threepeak Mountain, he had been the one to kill the lich, thus ensuring victory. Hadrin's clothes were held in black, matching his fairly long hair as well as being representative of his position as the king of Rockhaven. On his head was the traditional silver crown of Rockhaven, serving as both a symbol of his status and protection against mind altering magic. The angular piece of headwear complemented his sharp features well.

Closest to King Hadrin sat his advisors, to his left sat Lady Beatrice, her dress was decorated with black feathers. She was the court representative of the Mage Guild. To the king's right sat Captain Bedrock. Carol didn't know the names of the other advisors, she had heard them once or twice but up until now they hadn't been relevant to her as a mage.

Carol herself sat to the right of a man with a bald head wearing a long leather coat who she presumed to be the representative of the alchemists. Carol most definitely knew who sat to her own right, it was Emilia Spellblade, the current archmage, dressed in purple robes with colorful decorations, indicating her status and mastery of all schools of magic. Normally Carol would have been a lot more nervous in her presence but she constantly told herself that she held an important position as well now.

On the last occupied seats to the left and right sat Fire and Shadow respectively, Carol had heard that the banquet somehow involved them but not how exactly.

She looked around the room some more, she saw some faces she knew from the guild, some of her former colleagues were there as well. On one table she spotted freeZe and the other three apprentices. She usually wasn't quick to make friends but she had gotten along well with her from the start and while she wouldn't really consider freeZe a proper friend, Carol was sure that she would become one if she were to stay in the city for longer.

King Hadrin spoke: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure that you know that we gathered here today for a reason as such is the nature of royal banquets. I am not one for long speeches, I prefer to leave that to my advisors and guests of honor. The reason we are here is that our prized Axe will be leaving us shortly."

A murmur went through the attendants, it seemed that only few outside of the people sitting at the table with the king had known about this.

The king continued: "I have been given very good reasons for giving the Axe away, otherwise I would not be doing it. I was approached by Fire, a diplomatic envoy speaking on the behalf of Drandin as well as a large part of the Mencur-Besh population, both in Rockhaven and all over the rest of the world. Both of those parties have had a significant hand in the prosperity of our city so I was inclined to hear him out. He will now present the arguments he presented to me, to you."

Fire stood up and started moving his mouth but no sounds reached Carol's ears, everything was drowned out by a sudden surge of pain in her skull. The whispers had returned, strong as never before. Carol's brain was assaulted by sensations she could not comprehend, it was as if someone was talking in the demonic language, only much louder and much more insistently. She knew she was the mercy of the whispers, her spell had somehow gotten stuck on the eye and refused to be taken down. She heard red, saw the smell of rotten eggs, felt the concept of abstraction. She would have screamed if she could do anything but clutch her head. She didn't know for how long the whispers persisted, it felt like an eternity to her. Nobody in the room seemed to be paying attention to her since they were all listening to Fire.

Slowly she was able to take in sensations from outside again, she heard a voice: "…the walls from artificial bedrock and were forced to abandon it, I do not claim that we hold any rights to the Axe but it would certainly be safer in our hands than within reach of the traitors that crop up every now and again. We only hold Rockhaven's best interests at heart, since the city itself represents the heart of our culture."

The whispers died down to where Carol was able to completely ignore them. It seemed that she had only heard the tail end of Fire's speech, it still had been enough to tell her what he wanted. Honestly, from what little she had heard she couldn't find anything wrong, the Axe probably was safer with the Mencur-Besh. She had to admit to herself, the Mencur-Besh in general were much better than humans when it came to trustworthiness. The ones she knew always kept their promises and sometimes even went beyond what they promised. While they were certainly nosey as a whole, she had never heard of a flat-out malevolent Mencur-Besh. Mercenary Mencur-Besh existed but she couldn't hold that against them, human mercenaries usually accepted much dirtier work than Mencur-Besh.

It seemed that a lot of the people in the room had similar thoughts, indicated by the applause that the speech was met with. Though Carol still didn't know what Shadow had to do with all of this, her best guess was that she was affiliated with the Mencur-Besh seeing that she was a product of their experiments to enhance magical abilities and was here to support Fire's claims. Carol shook her head, still somewhat dizzy from the assault on her mind.

King Hadrin spoke again: "It seems that most of the invited population agrees, I have already talked this over with my advisors and the guild leaders and we have all come to the conclusion that having the Axe here in Rockhaven is a risk we do not want to tolerate for any longer. We have been lucky that so far any plots have not thought of utilizing the axe. Or have come far enough to make use of it for that matter." He paused and cleared his throat. "Now that that's done with, let's get to the part that most of you actually came for, the feast."

As he spoke the demon waiters were already bringing in plates with various foods and drinks, they were wearing many different types of clothes, some wore street clothes, others wore robes, one that tended to the curved table wore a pure white cloak. Carol was served a large side of beef that she hungrily eyed but didn't touch yet, she waited for everyone else to receive their plates before she began.

A few minutes into the feast, Fire stood up once again, this time with his goblet of wine in hand. "I would like to toast to King Hadrin, his court, the guild leaders and to the population of Rockhaven for allowing us to make Rockhaven a little bit safer than it already is."

With those words he raised the goblet to his lips and took a gulp. Everyone else raised their beverages as well but just before they were about to drink, Fire suddenly fell over onto the table, the rest of the wine spilling out of the goblet and leaving a large red stain in the tablecloth.

Absolute chaos broke out. A poisoning at the royal court! People threw away their drinks in fear that there might have been poison in them as well. Some even stood up and fled towards the exit.

A few seconds later a thundering voice filled the room: "Everyone stay where you are and calm the hell down! That is an order!"

Even without looking Carol knew that this voice belonged to Captain Bedrock, everyone knew and everyone respected his authority, even through the haze of panic.

Slowly order returned to the room, everyone went back to their seats. Meanwhile the few Mencur-Besh present at the banquet had gathered around Fire. They lifted him onto a gurney and carried him off. Carol had only seen this happen once before. If a Mencur-Besh died they would be carried to a building near the edge of Rockhaven so that they could burn up safely without endangering anyone. This was less than common knowledge and Carol only knew because she had looked into Mencur-Besh traditions for a while.

As the Mencur-Besh closed the doors behind them, King Hadrin spoke again, at first quietly: "Thank you Bedrock." He then raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. "A diplomat and former Guard captain was poisoned. Rockhaven is now on indefinite lockdown! Captain Bedrock will see to it that nobody can enter or leave the city. Emilia Spellblade will tune the wards above to block any magical attempts of escape. Anyone still attempting to leave will be captured and questioned. Furthermore the Royal Guard will start investigations into this matter, citizens and visitors alike are required to cooperate to the best of their ability. Anyone giving information that leads to the apprehension of whoever is behind this is welcome and will be rewarded after the fact. Any visitors to the city that are forced to stay longer than they anticipated will be compensated accordingly. The feast is cancelled, everyone go home and get some rest, you'll most likely need it."

Carol looked around, even as the attendants slowly got up and left, their faces still had fear written on them. Fire's and Shadow's apprentices were no exception to that. Shadow herself wore an expressionless mask. At the edge of her vision Carol noticed something, all of the demon waiters had lined up at the back of the room, save for one. The demon with the white cloak was leaving through a side door.

Before Carol had any opportunity to say something, the whispers returned in full force.


	79. Chapter 78

Phoebe had been plagued by sleeplessness for a week but that night she slept unusually well. She supposed that the memory transfer had something to do with it. Still somewhat sleepily she looked over to the clock that stood on the bedside table inside of her container, it was early in the morning but she felt like she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again.

She decided to get up and get dressed, then stepped through the door into the expansive warehouse the lab was located in. The only people she could see were the guards they had brought with them, since they didn't approach her she assumed that they had nothing to report. After giving the room a second look she noticed that Gerald was sitting at one of the scientists' workstations.

While Phoebe walked over to him she wondered if he had been there all night, it wouldn't surprise her. Gerald had a tendency to ignore his biological needs if he was especially interested in something and this software most definitely qualified. Phoebe's speculations were confirmed when she reached Gerald, his eyes looked strained and he was even paler than normally but here he was, relentlessly hammering away at the keyboard in front of him. He was so immersed that he didn't seem to notice Phoebe at all. She decided to not break him out of his focus and instead just sat down on a chair behind him.

Whatever Gerald was coding there was far beyond Phoebe. While she was definitely adept in some languages she was nowhere near Gerald's level, she usually was in charge of the human side of intelligence work rather than the technological one. After a few minutes Gerald did seem to notice her but instead of greeting her he first finished what he was working on.

Once he was done he turned around in his chair, his voice sounded noticeably tired. "Hey Phoebe."

"Hey G. What are you working on there?"

Suddenly the tiredness in Gerald's voice disappeared, excitedly he pointed to the screen. "I've been working on improving their software. Don't get me wrong, I still very much admire what they have done but in some regards they definitely had some weaknesses. The actual biological interface is near perfect and I'm not familiar with the field so I left it alone." He raised a finger. "But! But. There were some major shortcomings in their communication protocols, in the context of the server as it is now they are more than sufficient but when it comes to direct connections it gets problematic. Anyways, I ironed that out and then got to work on something they hadn't done yet."

Phoebe said: "I can confirm that direct connections can lead to problems."

Gerald continued: "So, what we now have is something like a conference call feature, it's much safer than a multi-brain link but the connection doesn't go as deeply so things like directly sharing memories or controlling another body won't work. I didn't want to lose out in the convenience and efficiency of memory sharing completely though, instead of directly transferring memories you can instead project them into the shared mind. I already tested everything on simulated minds and it's worked perfectly. Now once everyone is awake I'd like to do a real test run."

Phoebe said: "I think I got what you mean, you might have to repeat it without the lightning speed though."

Gerald didn't answer, instead he just turned around again and resumed with his work.

* * *

A few hours later everyone was awake. Phoebe had made herself some breakfast with whatever she found, which turned out to be quite a lot, the stores were almost completely full.

At some point Gerald stepped out into the middle of the room and announced that he now wanted to conduct his test. In the meantime he had also jury-rigged a device that would allow everyone to connect to the shared mind. All of them gathered around the device except for Harald, who preferred to remain disconnected.

The device consisted of a metal ball mounted on top of a computer tower. In order to connect to the joined mind all you had to do was touch the ball. Gerald was the first to connect in order to make sure everything worked correctly, the others followed after.

As Phoebe touched the metal a familiar numbness went up her arm, it was way less intense than with the direct link with Sarah so she managed to remain standing until the connection was complete. When she opened her mental eyes in the shared mind she found that Gerald had set it up like a conference table, the others gradually appeared in their respective seats.

There were a total of five people present, there was Gerald, Hannah and Phoebe herself, Sarah and Anna had also successfully connected.

Gerald spoke: "Alright. This seems to be working. Let's test the memory projection then."

After a few seconds the memory Gerald had chosen for the test appeared in the middle of the conference table, it seemed to be a tesseract.

Gerald said: "Great, seems like even concepts like an additional dimension work in here."

Phoebe was the next to speak: "This here should help us figure out more of the situation we are in. Now we can better share information that could lead to us finding those hackers. From what I gathered already we can't track them using this software, they seem to have taken steps to avoid this."

Anna said: "Yes, they could be behind any of the connections the server has open right now and we have no way to access the server's system itself so we can't brute-force guess our way to them."

Phoebe asked: "Before we get to the hackers, I'd like to know a bit more about your software so we know what possibilities are open to us. Besides the obvious applications, what else have you used your software for?"

Anna explained: "We made use of the calculation capabilities in order to do some simulation involving genetics, Peter's body on the server was part of those experiments. Later on we used the Mencur-Besh collective to automate various experiments that were similar."

"Results?" Hannah asked.

Instead of the scientists, Gerald was the one to answer: "I had a look at the results myself last night, they are fascinating. They completely decoded the functions and interactions of all human genes, they also did the same for multiple animal species. They also have a complete genome of the bodies the Mencur-Besh collective uses."

As he spoke he projected a transparent human body onto the table that rapidly underwent changes to demonstrate the effects of various alterations.

Sarah added: "So what it boils down to is that things like the Mencur-Besh's bodies are theoretically possible in the real world too, the thing is that we don't have the tools to reliably construct a full genome from scratch, neither do we have ways to incubate a Mencur-Besh body."

"Any other projects?" Hannah said. "If not, I'd like to start finding those hackers."

Sarah projected something that looked like the molecular structure of a material, then said: "We also did some research into discovering new types of materials, the methods and results were similar to our genetics project. Most things, while theoretically possible, can't be created due to lacking technology."

While the others were talking, Phoebe had been going through the memories she had received from Sarah again, she then realized that in one or two of them there was a woman she didn't know, she hadn't noticed her during her first round because Sarah had never focused on her in those memories.

The woman was short, had long brown hair and very pale skin, Phoebe couldn't exactly see her face. She proceeded to throw the best projection she could manage onto the table.

"By the way, who is she?" Phoebe asked.

Both Sarah and Anna sharply inhaled.

Hannah clearly noticed and asked: "What are you hiding?"

Sarah slowly began: "I… might have excluded some memories. I really didn't want to involve her."

Gerald asked: "Why?"

Anna continued in Sarah's place: "Our project was well underway and the server had just entered the phase where it could accept a nearly unlimited amount of people. Naturally we reported our progress to Peter. Now, you must know that Peter never talked about his private life more than was absolutely necessary, at this point we had known him for a few years but we didn't really know much about him."

Anna took a deep breath.

"That day he seemed to have decided that we are trustworthy enough for him to tell us a bit more about himself. Well, a bit might be an understatement. He more or less told us his whole life story, among it was that he had a sister."

Phoebe said: "So that's her then."

Anna nodded. "Yes, but there is more to it. He told us that from birth she had suffered from some kind of mental condition that caused her to refuse to trust or interact with anyone but Peter, not even her own parents, it also caused irrational fear of anyone but him. He then said that he now was sure that we could help her in some way, the only problem was that in order for us to help her she needed to be here in the warehouse."

Phoebe said: "I can see how that could be problematic for her."

Sarah took over again: "It took him three months of convincing to even get her to come here with him and another month for her to not immediately try to run when she saw us. At that point we wanted to take some simple measurements, figure out what her problem actually was. But when I formed a mind link with her, something interesting happened. Inside of our shared mind she seemed to be completely unaffected by her condition. What I realized then was that she had effectively been a prisoner in her own mind for a bit over thirty years, she probably would have completely gone insane if not for her interactions with Peter."

Gerald leaned his head on one hand. "That's heavy, I mean I had my own share of conditions and therapists when I was younger but I've never heard of anything like that."

Phoebe asked: "What did you do then?"

Sarah replied: "Well, first and foremost there was the problem of getting her to leave our joined mind. She begged me to stay connected, she didn't want to go back into her mind-prison after experiencing freedom. It required some actual mental strain to disconnect, I suppose I should have seen that as a warning of some sort."

Anna said: "Harald suggested letting her use the server while we figured out some solution to her problem, in the end we went with that. We called in some favors with a few doctors we once helped, in turn they helped us create some sort of life sustaining setup for her. We figured that it would be best for her mental state if she didn't have to leave the server at all."

Gerald asked: "So, how long was she in there?"

Anna said: "When it comes to the time spent on the server, roughly five-hundred years. In real time, a few months. We really wanted to make sure that nothing could happen to endanger her, especially not since we know first-hand what it means to have people die due to you own mistakes. Our solution was radical but overall low-risk. We would first extract her personality and memories from her brain, then effectively reset it and put personality and memories back and have the rest of her brain rebuild itself based on that."

"Don't know, doesn't sound low-risk to me." Hannah interjected.

Sarah explained: "The only reason why there was a risk at all was because we were unable to copy her entire mind as a backup, without an empty brain as temporary storage that just is not possible. There was also the problem that in order to minimize interference her consciousness needed to be in a neutral state, which we couldn't induce from outside. Peter used the Mencur-Besh collective to conduct research into how to achieve such a state with the methods available on the server."

Gerald said: "Ah, so those are the strange diagrams labelled 'Ascension' talking about elements, runes and stuff."

"Peter was so kind as to document the procedure." Anna paused for a moment. "When we finally did come around to following through with the procedure everything went according to plan. The relevant aspects of her were extracted and reinserted properly. The first thing she did when she disconnected from the server was jump up and give everyone a hug. Also since from her perspective she never really had a name she assumed the one she also held on the server, Shadow."

Hannah said: "Still doesn't explain why you tried to hide her."

Sarah said: "There was one thing that didn't go according to plan. Her brain reconstructed itself in a way that was completely different from normal humans, so different even that whatever her brain turned into was so overwhelming that I was forced to immediately terminate my mind link when I tried to check up on her. We don't know if some external interference caused this or it was just random chance. We cautiously did some scans and simple experiments, any simulated mind we tried to connect to her was almost immediately overloaded and warped beyond recognition. What's more is that a few months ago, out of nowhere she gained the ability to interface with computers without implants like mine."

Anna slowly said: "We… are not sure what we created when we saved her. For now, she helps us keep the server free of troublemakers. But I still can't help but feel that we somehow made a big mistake. She's able to focus on a nearly unlimited number of things at the same time, able to control technology with a touch, more or less able to kill with a thought."

Phoebe said: "Yeah, but she's your ally, right?"

Anna said: "Well, a few days ago I would have no doubts, then she suddenly disappeared without a trace and we have no idea where she is now."

Hannah nodded. "Bad."

Gerald raised his voice: "Let's not get sidetracked here, sure she could potentially be problematic but the hackers are still the more pressing problem. But please, from now on no more secrets."

Phoebe browsed through the memories she had available, then started asking detailed questions that might help them find out who wanted to harm the scientists. In the of her mind however she once again thought about how absurd this entire situation would have sounded the day before. Each time she thought she had seen everything, something new would come out to surprise her, first the mere existence of the brain-computer interface, then its memory transfer capabilities and now the existence of what sounded to be a potentially dangerous superhuman.

She sighed, now was not the time to muse about the vast expansion her horizon had experienced in the recent days, she had hackers to catch.


	80. Chapter 79

The sun was barely peeking over the walls of Rockhaven as the gates to the palace opened once again. The cloudy sky burned in a bright orange color.

The four apprentices slowly went down the few steps in front of the palace gate. They still weren't over the shock of the events of the feast, the only exception Ambigious who instead was burning with suppressed anger.

A growl escaped his mouth, he said: "We need to find the bastards who did this."

Unchosen nodded. "I agree. Even if it's not a permanent death, someone still poisoned Fire in front of everyone. The delay may cost us."

Nobody said anything further until they were well past the central plaza, the silence was only broken as they were closing in on Shadow's house.

freeZe asked: "Where did Shadow go off to?"

"Don't know." Unchosen said. "Heard her mumble something about 'finishing the deal', probably meant that she'll negotiate for the Axe. Anyways, does anyone have a key to the house?"

freeZe pulled the requested key from a pocket of her robes. When they arrived she unlocked the door and they went inside. Instead of getting some sleep like the king told them to, they got together in one of the unused guest rooms that Ambigious had declared the 'War Room' using a handwritten sign on the door.

They had moved the bed out of the way and instead placed a table and four chairs directly under the hanging glowstone lamp. Unchosen managed to find plenty of paper and TehLulz discovered a book about Rockhaven's history in one of the drawers, the book contained multiple maps of the city.

They placed all that on the table and sat down.

TehLulz began: "So, now that we have some things to make a plan, where do we begin?"

Ambigious said: "That's a good question…" After a pause he said: "We don't really have anything that we can base our suspicions on."

Unchosen said: "We could start by thinking about who would be interested in killing a Mencur-Besh diplomat. First ones that come to mind are people who don't like the Mencur-Besh."

freeZe added: "Could also be that they want the Axe and don't want it to leave the city."

Unchosen said: "Don't know about that. They must know that Shadow would just finish the negotiations and get the Axe either way."

Meanwhile Ambigious had started writing down possible groups of suspects, as it stood the list was very short and the categories broad.

After a bit TehLulz said: "It could also be that they wanted the city to be locked down, maybe they just need a few more days to act."

"Possible." Said freeZe. "The city will remain on lockdown until the assassins are found, which may take a while if it really is part of a distraction."

Ambigious said: "Something just came to my mind. If they really are banking on being able to stay hidden they must know the city well, so most visitors are off the list, at least when it comes to being the head of whatever this is. It's possible that we're dealing with long-term citizens here."

freeZe added: "We can most likely also rule out any Eye-and-Claws since their interests should line up with those of the Mencur-Besh, that and Fire made it very clear that traitors are quickly found and harshly punished."

Unchosen speculated: "Our assassins also need to be familiar with the Mencur-Besh to some degree since they knew that the poison they used could kill Fire. During my alchemy lessons Fire told me that most poisons can't harm the Mencur-Besh and a large part of those that can are quickly metabolized into something harmless. There's only a handful of poisons that can quickly and reliably kill a Mencur-Besh."

freeZe asked: "Happen to have a list?"

"No…" Unchosen said. "We never worked with those and from what Fire said they are very obscure or rare. I also didn't read all books on poisons I could find, I focused more on beneficial potions."

Ambigious seemed to remember something. "Reminds me, Unchosen. I ran into Undira again in Rock Bottom and she said she needed a potion mixed."

"Huh." Unchosen said.

TehLulz said: "We might as well go around town doing various things, as it stands right now we need a better idea about who we are looking for. We might as well ask around our respective guilds to find out more. Maybe we can even pinpoint some groups that are anti-Mencur-Besh."

freeZe said: "Shadow mentioned that the Mage and Enchanter Guilds were quite averse to giving the Axe away. It would make sense, mages don't like giving away power and enchanters are similar."

TehLulz added: "Enchanters also really don't like secrets being kept from them, which could be a possible source of distrust towards the Mencur-Besh."

Ambigious kept writing down important points, now his sheet actually looked like somewhat of a start.

He said: "So, tomorrow we'll try to find out as much as possible about who could have something against the Mencur-Besh. That's the most likely group to commit that assault, also the only concrete group we have."

Unchosen said: "I'll find Undira tomorrow and try to make that potion. While I'm at the Alchemist Guild I might as well ask around there, maybe Undira herself knows something."

Ambigious said: "You'll probably find her at the Enchanter Guild or somewhere in the lower districts, Rock Bottom most likely. If she's down there you can't miss her, she'll be glowing like a lighthouse."

freeZe asked: "So, in the evening we meet up here again, right? It might be a good idea to make some copies of the house key for each of us, you can do that, right Ambigious?"

Ambigious nodded.

Unchosen said: "Alright, it's decided then. Now we really need to get some sleep, I suspect that tomorrow will be quite a demanding day for all of us."

Everyone stood up and went to their respective bedrooms, only Unchosen decided to ignore his own advice for a bit and instead went to a different room. That room was Shadow's library where she had amassed books about various subjects, according to freeZe there were also unique notebooks here that she had bought. Most of those notebooks were about studies on the Mencur-Besh, naturally this was part of the effort to find out what people knew beyond what the Mencur-Besh easily let on. Unchosen hoped to find details on the Mencur-Besh metabolism in one of those notebooks, which would help him identify the poison that was used on Fire.

Most of the Mencur-Besh related notebooks were not stored in the bookshelves but in labelled wooden boxes. Unchosen opened one such box and started digging, picking out one notebook at a time and quickly flipped through the pages to see if it was relevant.

About twenty books in he found the first one that could be useful, it held research notes about tests an alchemist had done on a certain breed of subterranean fungus that produced the same substance that Mencur-Besh metabolism was built around, in its pure form known as drandinian Heavybrew.

Unchosen found two more books, one about the exceptional senses of the Mencur-Besh, the other one was a near-exhaustive list of known Mencur-Besh deaths and their causes.

After he was done searching he put the other notebooks back into the box but left the box on the floor in case he needed something else from it. Additionally he looked through the bookshelves, searching for a certain tome he had seen at Fire's base but never read. He quickly found what he was looking for, "Toxins and Toxic Substances by Irna Bluemoss", it was one of the most expansive lists in existence yet only few alchemists owned a copy since the author was relatively unknown.

The heavy book was bound in plain leather and completely unenchanted. Even if it would take a bit to find it, the poison Fire had been killed with simply had to be in there.

With the books under his arm Unchosen went up the stairs to his bedroom and put them down on his desk. Instead of opening one of the books he decided to go to sleep, there was no use studying the texts now if it meant that he would be tired tomorrow. His current priority was to find Undira and ask around in the guild.

While falling asleep Unchosen tried his best to recall the way down to Rock Bottom.


	81. Chapter 80

Left after the bar with the green redstone sign... down the second available slope after that… the third branch in the crossroads… up another slope… right twice… straight for two intersections… fourth exit in the circular room? Unchosen wasn't sure anymore. Maybe he had taken a wrong turn somewhere but a lot more time had passed than on his way back to the surface after he had left Rock Bottom for the first time. He was sure he would find it, the local saying "everyone ends up in Rock Bottom eventually" existed for a reason.

The lower districts were significantly less populated during the day, the only people Unchosen saw were those who either didn't have a regular work schedule or those who stayed down for days at a time. As a result it was also a whole lot darker, at times there were hallways where only Unchosen's own steps illuminated the walls.

At this point Unchosen was just randomly picking directions and trying to listen for the music, which proved fruitless since artificial bedrock also seemed to be an excellent sound blocker. Occasionally he passed by a bar or small shop that he had seen before or that the others had told him about, which told him that he was on the right track.

Eventually he did reach the lowest part of the lower districts. The wide corridor before the entrance of Rock Bottom wasn't crowded like it had been at night but inside the club were still a respectable number of dancers. The music played at the same volume as Unchosen remembered but the sounds themselves were new. He looked around the central dancefloor trying to spot Undira but he quickly concluded that if she was here she must be in one of the outer chambers.

Unchosen decided to search the outer chambers from left to right. He first approached the Red Zone, the earth Mencur-Besh standing at the gate signaled him that he was free to enter. It turned out that Undira wasn't there. Unchosen continued to the Orange Lounge and the Yellow Palace and was met with similar success. He finally found Undira in the Green Grove and as Ambigious had prophesized she was glowing quite brightly.

Undira was sitting on the same couch where Ambigious said he had found her, Unchosen concluded that it might be a ritual or habit of hers. As he approached her she looked up from her bottle and directly at him, she seemed to recognize him from when they had eaten at the Creeper's Tongue, which made sense since Unchosen had sat right beside her, even if she had spent the entire time talking with Fire.

Undira raised a hand in greeting. "Unchosen, is it? Hello, what brings you down here?"

Unchosen sat down next to her and said: "Ambigious told me you needed a potion."

Undira took a swig from her bottle, then replied: "Yup. It's to help with enchanting, extending my vocal range beyond what the trance brings."

With a bit of hesitation Unchosen said: "Mind if we go right now, a lot has happened in the meantime and I have a lot of things to do."

Undira sighed and looked at her bottle. "I know, that's why I'm down here again." She then added angrily: "I don't understand why anyone would poison someone as fascinating and wonderful as Fire. I don't see anything wrong with giving away the Axe either, it's never been used in war, too great of a risk to lose it."

Unchosen got up. "Alright, do you have a recipe written down somewhere?"

As Unchosen turned to walk Undira followed him, she said: "Yes and no. I have a shopping list for some of the ingredients and a piece of paper with incomplete instructions."

"I'll see what I can do. Most potions can be quickly identified by certain key ingredients and processing steps."

After leaving Rock Bottom Undira took the lead since she knew her way around the lower districts better than Unchosen did.

As they ascended the stairs to one of the three entrances she asked: "How did you end up as Fire's apprentice anyways?"

Unchosen said: "He freed us from a slave mine and took us in, he quickly discovered my talent for alchemy."

Unchosen really liked that short version of their story, it said everything that needed to be said without revealing anything about their true backgrounds. It would be a bad idea to talk about the hackers with anyone in public since it would only cause panic or tip the hackers off to their location.

Undira replied: "Anything else you're learning or just alchemy?"

Unchosen said: "Close combat, I wanted to do archery but that sort of fell flat since we're travelling with Shadow and freeZe who have range more than covered."

"Makes sense." Undira said and nodded.

* * *

After they arrived on the surface they still had a bit of walking to do, Undira's house was on the very edge of Rockhaven, the only house in a street of storage buildings.

Unchosen asked: "Any specific reason for this choice of location?"

Undira said: "Yeah, I arrived in the city quite early and wanted to have something out of the way. Rockhaven may be safe and peaceful and all but I still like being a bit isolated. Besides, it's easier to buy stuff directly off the people who store it here, better prices and it won't ever appear in any guild's sales records."

Unchosen asked: "When you say early, how early do you mean?"

Undira replied: "Just a few years after Rockhaven was found abandoned." After a short pause she added: "If I'm correct that should be a bit more than three thousand years ago."

Undira took out her keys and unlocked the door to her house, they both went inside.

She said: "Yeah, I've been here for a while. Know the city better than almost anyone else. Anyways, that potion…"

Undira's house was completely unlike Shadow's house, while the furniture was definitely of high quality it wasn't as meticulously arranged. In general it reminded him of his own house in the real world, he'd never been one for perfectly laid out rooms, that and it was impossible to keep them that way with children in the household.

Undira began searching various cupboards, it was noticeable that she was trying not to just throw everything to the ground. Eventually she handed Unchosen two sheets of paper. One of them had a list of ingredients on them, the other one looked like it was a partial carbon copy of a hastily written recipe.

Undira admitted: "I'm not actually supposed to have the recipe but it was just too tempting not to grab the sheet and make the lines visible again."

Unchosen took the sheets, while looking over the shopping list he asked: "Who brewed that potion for you before?"

Dungeon moss… purified blaze powder…

"Erin, young alchemist, daughter of a weaver and a tool smith." Undira explained. "Lovely girl and quite talented too. She recently left the city under the premise of travelling to Redwater to buy some ingredients, maybe go further and hunt down some rarer ones herself. But I know that she really just wants to see the world outside of the walls. I hope she's well."

Wither skeleton dust… blue stone flower petals…

Unchosen said: "The world outside can be dangerous, experienced a lot of that first hand. We have taken the fun path more often than not in our travels so I seriously doubt that she'll intentionally go down a cave and face a ghoul."

Enderman liver… huh.

Undira replied: "Ghouls… nasty creatures. Say, ever heard of fog wraiths?"

Prepare large basin of potion base and heat to just below boiling…

Having read the shopping list Unchosen had moved on to the recipe. He replied: "Yeah, freeZe told me about them briefly. Only know that they live near bedrock and are nothing to be messed with."

Add whole petals… cut liver into thin strips…

Unchosen stopped. "Undira, is there something you are not telling me?"

Undira looked at Unchosen. "What do you mean?"

"This is demon tongue potion." Unchosen said. "Unless you are going for very specific enchantments this won't do you any good. But I have to admit, the part where you said that it extends the vocal range was clever."

Undira slowly said: "I never did ask what the proper name for it was. Makes sense now I guess. I might have slightly lied to you about what I am using it for but only slightly."

Unchosen sighed. "Out with it."

Undira explained: "As you might have noticed I am very interested in the Mencur-Besh and their culture, their architecture, their anatomy, their everything. I know that they built this city and that there are powerful enchantments within some of the artificial bedrock, in the past I used the potion to be able to look at those enchantments, try to understand them."

Unchosen said: "Your interest in the Mencur-Besh seems to be of a positive nature, everything I've seen so far supports this. I imagine you'd also be interested in finding out who poisoned Fire."

Undira nodded. "That I am. Are you hunting them?"

"Something like that, yes. Right now we don't really know where to start but we assume that it's someone who is hostile towards the Mencur-Besh. Having some as knowledgeable about the city as you on our side would help."

Undira said: "Yeah, I know a few people who would rather see the Mencur-Besh gone or dead. We have a deal then. Make me that potion and I'll help you dig through Rockhaven."

Unchosen extended his hand, Undira shook it.

Unchosen said: "One last question, there are some ingredients that are a bit different from normal demon tongue potion, did your alchemist ever say anything about that?"

"No, not that I remember." Undira said.

Unchosen got up, at the door he turned around. "It'd be best if you're either here or at the Enchanter Guild in case I need to find you again, going to Rock Bottom is fun and all but it's time consuming and time is something that we might not have much of."

Undira nodded in agreement. Unchosen went outside and closed the door behind him. Now he would need to make his way back to the central plaza again, he'd have to talk to the other alchemists about this potion since he currently had no idea where to get ingredients.

They were still far away from finding Fire's murderer but he just had gotten one step closer.


	82. Chapter 81

He was glad that his doubts were unfounded, the figure had kept its word. The diplomat was dead and the city was on lockdown, this would give them time to coordinate further steps.

When he recruited people to his cause he told them to stand by until they were needed, meetings were regularly scheduled but it was only natural that only a few came each time. There was one exception to this however, everyone in the following was clearly instructed to show up at the next available meeting if something of import happened. This could be the election of a new king or guild leader but the incident he had orchestrated would certainly also count. And as it happened the next meeting was on the day after the assassination, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

The people united under him were an interesting bunch, most of them worked in the supernatural crafts, all had been in Rockhaven for at least five hundred years and all knew at least something about the Mencur-Besh, some out of interest, most out of wanting to find some weak point. Up to this point they had not exchanged this knowledge since there honestly had been no need to do so, that and they couldn't be sure how much of what each individual knew was true. Today that would change. At this point he knew that the figure would not give them any information but could still confirm or deny things that they asked it.

The meeting would take place deep inside the bowels of Rockhaven's lower districts but the site was not accessible on foot alone. The only way in or out was through a portal tuned to a specific teleportation frequency. He had found this chamber himself by accident, he didn't know if anyone had found it before him or if there were more such chambers, he didn't even even what it had been used for originally.

Before departing to the Mage Guild he put on several rings with enchanted gems in them, each one holding multiple times his life force. At the meetings it was very important to keep everything in order, constantly reading the emotional state of everyone present was his way of doing that. Maybe he could even get a read out of the figure if he put enough energy into it.

The central plaza was busy, as it was every morning. People wearing various types of clothes hurried to their respective guilds, the Mage Guild was no exception to that. The golem in the entrance hall projected several maps at a time so that entering people could always grab one without delay. He didn't need a map, he knew the inside of the guild and had memorized all times relevant to him, his schedule usually didn't vary.

It was too risky to use the portals in the main hall, the chances that someone would pick up the unusual teleport frequency was way too high. He instead went up several flights of stairs and took some turns into progressively less populated sections of the guild. Each time he passed someone he took a brief look at their emotions as a warm-up for the meeting.

He was quickly walking down a hallway as a library door swung open without warning, out came a black-haired Fire-Air mage, judging by her robes she was only an apprentice, probably not even a citizen. She felt frustration but also determination. After avoiding a collision with a quick step to the side he barely even looked at her, he had more important things to do.

At the end of the hallway was the portal, instead of using any of the built-in frequencies that would link to the other portals he substituted it for the one that would lead to the meeting place. After a few seconds the portal stabilized and he stepped through, making sure to close that side of the portal again. The room he was now in was perfectly circular. Ahead of him were rows of benches and at the other side of the room was a speaker's podium.

He always arrived earlier than everyone else, this was by design. In his order only few people knew who the others were and he encouraged them to keep it that way in order to minimize damage in case someone either was uncovered or decided to spill the beans. He was the only one known to everyone and he also knew everyone. He was the keystone of the whole organization and he was well aware of the fact. His Life magic and the emphatic ability that came with it was what had allowed him to remain untouched and unquestioned for so long but he knew that it couldn't keep him safe forever, which is why he had to act now. He did lament that while his magic gave him so much insight into others' minds, it did not improve his memory and thus he had to rely on the notebook in his safe to keep track of everything.

As he looked around he could see that today someone else had arrived before him, the figure was leaning against the wall behind the podium, not visible from the portal. He honestly wasn't surprised, if the figure knew about his order it was only natural for it to know about their meeting place as well. He wondered…

"Tell me this, why haven't you done anything yourself?" He said as the approached the figure. "You clearly have the capabilities."

Still no emotions from the figure. It replied: "Because if one person changes something that affects many, the change remains superficial. How can I know that Rockhaven can even sustain itself if we just disappear without anyone having a plan? We have our own interests but we do try to realize them with as little disruption to the world as possible. I am merely helping you bring about whatever changes you desire, if you so desperately want Rockhaven to change it is your responsibility to bring about those changes."

He began channeling more of his own life force, still nothing. "How can you be sure that the change I desire is good for the Mencur-Besh?"

He half expected the figure to laugh or chuckle but no such reaction came. "You think of yourself too highly. The collective has existed for a long time and spans further and reaches deeper than you may realize. The loss of Rockhaven, while inconvenient for some, will not affect us in the long run. That is also why I wouldn't mind if that loss came about since it may open up other opportunities."

He clenched his fists as more life force streamed into his body from the rings. He now realized that the figure's emotions weren't just not there, they were even less. The more he tried to focus his spell the clearer became the sheer nothingness he was staring into. He stopped. If he looked any more intensely he feared that the metaphorical abyss would really start staring back into him. A cold shiver went down his spine.

He took a breath. "Today we'll come together and finally connect what we know. But I assume that you also knew that already."

The figure remained silent.

Before he had another chance to think on the figure, he felt a pulse of energy behind him, several people had entered the hall through the portal and more followed in the next minutes. If his followers were anything it was punctual.

Once the room filled up he ascended the few stairs that lead up to his podium. When he stood at his position the figure parted from the wall and stood next to the podium. The people in the hall shot it suspicious looks, the general state of emotions was tense, they didn't know what to expect.

He cleared his throat and once again took a breath. Now it was time to speak to his entire following of roughly a hundred mages, enchanters and the occasional other citizens. It had been a while since they all had been in one place and he suspected that some of them had become restless or doubtful. His task now was to bring everyone together under him once more.

He said: "My friends, it's good to see you all gathered here again. Yesterday we delivered an important blow to the up until now invincible Mencur-Besh. That was one step closer to our goal, a free Rockhaven!"

He had everyone's attention now, it was time to begin.


	83. Chapter 82

The Alchemist Guild was the most impressive of the guilds, at least judging by those Unchosen had seen already. The interior was entirely made from obsidian and occasional diamond-glass elements. The obsidian was different from what he had seen in Fire's laboratory though, there the entire room had been a completely seamless surface since it most likely had been molded magically. The obsidian in the guild came in slabs that were paved onto an unknown structural material below, which he suspected might be firesteel simply because of its favorable properties.

After walking in through the gate the first thing he saw was a relatively narrow corridor that reached up all the way to the ceiling of the building and got progressively wider upwards as tiers of laboratories and storage rooms were stacked on top of each other like a giant staircase. Occasionally bridges spanned across from left to right. This guild was also unique in the fact that its roof wasn't entirely solid, it had openings in regular intervals that were covered by what looked to be redstone-powered fans.

Unchosen was greeted by a man sitting behind an obsidian desk to the right of the gate. "Greetings, haven't seen you here before. Are you an apprentice? I may need to talk to your master about getting you keys to the storage rooms, formalities and all that."

Unchosen walked a few steps towards the desk and replied: "That might be a little difficult. I am an apprentice of Fire and as you might know…"

"Ah, I see. That might complicate things. Unless…"

The man beckoned Unchosen to come a bit closer, then extended his hand. Unchosen got the hint and shook it. Almost immediately the familiar feeling on the back of his hand set in. The man nodded, then opened a drawer under the desk, took out several keys and attached them to a keychain. Each of the keys had a small gem attached to its back.

He said: "Here's your keys. Ruby one's for ingredient storage, sapphire's for potion storage, emerald's for labs, diamond's for anything else that's locked."

"Thanks." Unchosen put the keychain into a pocket of his coat, then found out that there was already a hook for such a keychain in that pocket.

One third down the corridor were stairs going up to either side. Following a sign next to them Unchosen went up the left flight. His first goal was to find someone who might help him reconstruct the potion recipe. He knew the ingredients for the base potion and a few additional ones, he also suspected that this version of the demon tongue potion didn't lock you out of speaking and understanding normal speech, otherwise Undira would have asked her alchemist more questions. It was always those small details that eluded one alchemist for years but another discovered by accident.

Further following signs Unchosen made his way to the common room. The common room had one large diamond-glass panel out towards the central corridor, next to the glass was a door on each side. The inside of the room was a little less plastered with obsidian than the rest of the building. Metal desks and cushioned metal benches and chairs dominated a large part of the room. At the back was something resembling a bar. Unchosen shrugged, he might as well ask the bartender directly.

The bartender greeted him: "What can I get you?"

Unchosen quickly glanced at a panel with drinks and prices at the back of the bar. "Drandinian Whitebrew, still got work to do."

The bartender poured Unchosen his drink. Whitebrew was something Andras had shown him and Ambigious when they had visited him. It was what you got when you poured Heavybrew into milk. The reaction was different to that with water, instead of creating alcohol it created a drink that was perpetually at an icy cold temperature and tasted quite sweet.

After a few sips Unchosen looked at the bartender. "Young alchemist named Erin, I've been told she works here. I found an incomplete recipe of hers and would like to complete it."

The bartender replied: "You are a few months late my friend. She left for Redwater."

Unchosen feigned frustration. "Damn. Anyone else I can talk to? Any groups she was in?"

The bartender stroked his chin. "Yeah… there were people. Names wouldn't help you much but she usually worked in a lab on the third tier, fourth door to the right after the first staircase."

Unchosen took another sip and said: "Thanks."

He tried not to take his time with his drink but on the other hand he didn't want to be suspicious, even though the Eye-and-Claws presence seemed to be quite high in the Alchemist Guild, at least judging by the fact that he immediately gained universal access just through his mark. A few minutes later he had emptied his drink, a pleasant chill now in his stomach.

* * *

He soon after arrived at the lab, inside was a lone alchemist currently cleaning some alembics. Judging by his looks he was quite seasoned in the trade, his body was completely devoid of hair and even though they were dangerously spindly, his limbs seemed to hold more strength than you would think. This was a body thoroughly changed by enhancing concoctions and self-experimentation.

The alchemist looked over to Unchosen with his neon green eyes and said: "Wasn't expecting any company."

Unchosen decided cut to the chase. "Erin used to work here, did you know her?" After a short pause he extended his hand and said: "I'm Unchosen by the way."

The alchemist shook his hand with a strong grip, again triggering the familiar feeling. "Egis Degons is the name, Great Alchemist of Treetop if you value titles. Yes, Erin used to work here, usually assisted me in my experiments and conducted research of her own. While not official I have always considered her my apprentice."

Egis went back to cleaning his alembics and asked: "Why do you ask?"

Unchosen again explained his reasons for searching out someone who knew Erin.

Egis nodded. "She did occasionally talk about the interesting metabolic remnants in enderman liver and possible applications but never did she mention demon tongue potion. So, that list of ingredients, let me see it."

They both went over to the obsidian table in the middle of the room, Unchosen took both the recipe and the shopping list out of his pockets and unfolded them onto the table.

Egis spent a few minutes looking at the pieces of paper, occasionally muttering to himself, then said: "Ingredients seem easy enough, apart from the liver the only additions should be things that integrate the remnants into the potion. Endermen are largely immune to most substances so only a few ingredients remain."

Unchosen nodded. "Yeah… prismarine dust would help, powerful toxin if ground finely enough, quite literally turns cells inside out."

"You seem to know your toxins." Egis said. "While I specialize in altering potions, the study of toxins and reversing their effects is integral to my field still."

Unchosen continued speculating: "So, prismarine dust to isolate whatever it is we want from the liver, then use that in the potion. Then we would need something to neutralize the prismarine."

Egis said: "A handful of soul sand should do. Very strong binding properties."

Unchosen said: "Tell you what. I'll go find the ingredients, in the meantime you could set up what we need to brew, this being your equipment and all."

Egis simply nodded. Unchosen quickly left the lab in search of suitable storage rooms. Within half an hour he had everything he needed, thanks to the guild's well organized and well stocked stores. He did feel a bit bad about taking one of the two last enderman livers though, he knew how hard those were to come by, especially since the End was still guarded by the dragon.

When he arrived back at the lab Egis had already prepared a diamond-glass cauldron over a blaze powder heater, beside it sat a small bowl that Unchosen assumed they would use to extract from the liver.

After he put down the bag of ingredients Egis handed him a mask and a pair of gloves, he himself only seemed to need gloves.

Egis explained: "The procedure should be like brewing regular demon tongue potion, just that at some point we add the metabolic remnants. Sadly we don't know when and how much. I suggest we experiment with small batches and once we know we make a bigger one."

"Agreed." Unchosen said.

* * *

Extracting the remnants from the liver proved more difficult than they had thought, their first attempt unceremoniously vaporized after the purification step, on their next one they had too low temperature and the soul sand only partially bound the prismarine. On the third try they wound up with a teal liquid, which seemed to be what they wanted.

They then proceeded to test when the optimal timing for adding the liquid would be, fortunately due to the fact that the first part of the recipe was uninterrupted they figured it out quite quickly. The dosage turned out to be the hardest part, too much and the remnants would form flakes in the potion, too little and the entire mixture would destabilize and vaporize at room temperature, the margin between the two was very narrow, finding the correct ratio took them hours.

Finally they held a flask of what they thought to be their final product, a red tinted potion that wasn't otherwise visually interesting. Now they only needed to test it.

"This is safe to drink, right?" Unchosen asked.

Egis replied: "Yes, even if that wasn't the right dosage. At worst we'll be stuck talking demon for a few hours. A small glass should suffice."

He then proceeded to pour each of them a shot glass of the potion, as they raised them Unchosen said: "To successful research."

Drinking the potion felt surprisingly normal, just like drinking lukewarm water with a slight aftertaste. It also didn't have any detectable effects like the Fire Resistance potion Fire had given them during their escape. The only thing that changed was that his thoughts felt somehow… clearer and more focused.

When he wanted to ask Egis if he felt anything he flinched at the sound of his voice, it wasn't unpleasant, just something he wasn't used to. He didn't speak in words, he spoke in concepts, in clear and unambiguous concepts. That was also how Egis answered him, telling him that they had indeed been successful.

Unchosen concentrated a bit, then said in his normal voice: "I guess this really works."

Egis replied: "Good work, let's make the rest and bottle it."

They spent another hour brewing and bottling as much of the potion as the remnants would allow, in total they ended up with eight quarter-liter flasks, which Egis packed into a padded crate so that Unchosen could carry them better. It was their unspoken deal that Unchosen kept the potion while Egis was able to add another recipe to his journal.

As Unchosen left, Egis said: "It was a pleasure brewing with you Unchosen, you're always welcome in my lab."

* * *

Unchosen stepped out onto the central plaza again, it had gotten quite dark, time did indeed fly when you concentrated on something. As he walked by the central tower he was reminded of something, didn't freeZe say that the eye whispered? Maybe this potion would allow him to hear those whispers. He got closer to the tower and listened.

He did indeed hear something but it wasn't whispers, it was a request he heard, asking specifically for three tons of glowstone dust. Was it really this easy to listen in on the Mencur-Besh network? No, it had to be specific to this eye. He kept listening for one last concept before he wanted to move on, standing still next to the tower did look a bit suspicious after all.

This time he heard a location, quite close actually, maybe even within the walls of Rockhaven, sadly its purpose was drowned out by a sudden spike of static. He made a mental note to visit this location when he had time.

He arrived at Shadow's house and rang the doorbell. After a few seconds Ambigious opened the door.

He said: "Welcome back, the others still seem to be out. Still no sign of Shadow."

Unchosen was a bit tempted to spook Ambigious with his demon voice but decided against it. "Got a lot done today, Undira is in on our cause. I'll tell you more in a moment."

While Unchosen was walking through the door, Ambigious gave him a key. "Wasn't easy to replicate, fortunately got an Eye-and-Claws blacksmith to help me."

Unchosen attached the key to his keychain, then went in the kitchen to drink some water. When he came back Ambigious wasn't there anymore, though Unchosen saw that the door to the war room was open, which seemed to be where his friend had gone. He followed Ambigious, even if the others weren't there they could still think about their next steps.


	84. Chapter 83

freeZe had spent the entire day in the library of the Mage Guild and had only arrived at Shadow's house well after midnight. Her head was buzzing with all the information it had soaked up over the course of the day. As she was lying in bed trying to sleep, she let everything she had learned pass through her head again.

She had been looking for everything Mencur-Besh related, specifically for historical records about people like that one archmage Carol had mentioned briefly. She had found out a fair bit about Rockhaven's history along the side. While the records didn't make special note of it, she couldn't help but notice just how involved the Mencur-Besh were in Rockhaven's affairs.

After being built and abandoned by the Mencur-Besh, Rockhaven had been merely a hollow shell of a city. It took years for people to approach it or even decide that it was a good idea to live there, the only thing the city had to offer were nearly unbreakable walls and a library stocked with a handful of books. Those books were known as the Books of Knowledge, beyond their existence little was known about those books since they disappeared before anyone could make sense of the runes they were written in. freeZe knew better, Fire had mentioned once or twice that it had been him and Shadow who had taken the books, presumably because what was written in them was too dangerous to be left unchecked.

Rockhaven hadn't always been the de-facto capital of the server. That had only begun after the Mencur-Besh returned to the city a few decades after it had been discovered. If the records were correct it was only then that the city began truly living. While the general structure of Rockhaven's society was definitely of human creation, freeZe, again knowing better, saw that the Mencur-Besh had influenced every aspect of the city, though up to this day the most overt sign of their involvement was the eye in the central plaza.

What freeZe had been interested in the most was if there had ever been any events where someone tried to overthrow the Mencur-Besh. Sadly she came to the conclusion that up until this point all plots had been against a guild leader or the current king or queen. There had been one case where a plot came very close to succeeding but failed due to Mencur-Besh intervention, it was unclear if all of the conspirators had been caught or if anyone had gotten away. freeZe suspected that if any had gotten away they were not only angry that they failed but now additionally angry at the Mencur-Besh because they prevented them from succeeding.

freeZe wanted to keep thinking but finally sleep overtook her, her last coherent thought was that they should probably look for the remnants of that revolution. A second later she was already dreaming.

* * *

The next morning she was woken up by TehLulz knocking on her door.

He said: "Ambigious just went to get Undira, it'd be best if you were in strategizing shape before they come back."

Still half-asleep freeZe wondered how it was possible for Ambigious to wake up earlier than her, then decided to not waste any time thinking about it and instead got out of bed with an inelegant roll.

As she opened the dresser she couldn't help but notice that all of the robes inside had changed to match her elemental alignment. Shadow had probably spent a lot of time infusing the guest rooms with magic. Since all of the robes looked the same she picked the rightmost one.

She opened the door of her room and went down the stairs, yawning. After arriving at the bottom she looked over to the kitchen. TehLulz was hastily devouring a sandwich he had made for himself, evidently he had also gotten up fairly recently. Unchosen was sitting on the couch, reading what looked to be a large leather-bound book.

"Morning." freeZe said.

TehLulz looked in her direction and nodded, Unchosen replied but didn't look up. freeZe decided that it was best that she got a bite to eat before Ambigious returned with Undira so she followed TehLulz' example. Shadow's house didn't have a fridge in the usual sense, what it did have though was a room in which time magically stopped when nobody was inside, keeping anything stored there fresh indefinitely. As freeZe went inside she picked out a few choice bits of food and set off to the kitchen to make herself breakfast.

She sat down at the table and began eating. Halfway through her breakfast Unchosen asked: "Did you know that there is a poison that causes excoriating pain in your bones but never causes any actual harm?"

"Huh." freeZe just replied.

Unchosen said: "Sorry, it's just quite funny to see that specific poison between much deadlier ones. I… haven't had a lot of sleep."

Not much happened after that, freeZe just made conversation with TehLulz and talked a bit about what she had found out. Suddenly the door swung open and in came Ambigious with Undira following shortly after.

Undira said: "Shadow's got a nice house."

Unchosen replied: "She hasn't been here ever since the attack, we have no idea what she's doing. It would help a lot to have her here."

If freeZe was honest with herself she really could have used a couple more hours of sleep but there was work to be done. Her brother on the other hand was downright energetic, which was a rare state for him so early in the day.

Ambigious said: "We have much to discuss, to the war room!"

A few minutes later they had all gathered around the table, Undira asked: "So, what do you know so far?"

Ambigious said: "We think that the poisoning was done by some individual or group, most likely a group, which either wants to prevent the Axe from leaving Rockhaven or has some other motive. If they wanted to kill Hadrin and his court they could have easily done so but they chose to specifically poison Fire, which makes it possible that they have something against the Mencur-Besh."

freeZe added: "I haven't found much about previous attacks on Mencur-Besh, either because there weren't any or because the records aren't complete. Then again, it's the only lead we have."

Unchosen explained: "I spent the last night reading through this book and so far none of the poisons I saw were capable of causing that quick of a death in a Mencur-Besh."

Undira was meanwhile looking over Ambigious' notes, after a few moments she asked: "Have you asked the Guard to let you get a sample?"

Unchosen asked: "You can do that?"

Undira nodded. "As long as you take the sample under their supervision, yes."

"Huh. I should do that today then."

TehLulz asked: "So, Undira. What do you know about anti-Mencur-Besh groups?"

She said: "Quite a lot actually, I know a few names of people who are fairly outspoken with their opinions, though they might not be the ones in charge, too high profile. Over the years there have been several groups who wanted the Mencur-Besh out but usually they either quickly disbanded or were not militant."

freeZe asked: "So, any idea who we're dealing with?"

Undira scratched her head. "Maybe. See, years back someone actually tried to recruit me into something, they thought that because I researched the Mencur-Besh I might be a valuable addition. I didn't take their bait but in hindsight it might have been useful to gain some sort of information."

Ambigious asked: "Do you know who tried to recruit you?"

Undira replied: "Not by name, no. I do remember his face though, vaguely. Quite an ordinary face, which doesn't help much, I suppose. When I think about it now, there was something interesting. Multiple times he mentioned something about 'down' when referring to their meeting place, which can only refer to the lower districts."

TehLulz said: "Makes sense, it's a lot easier to hide a larger meeting down there than it is up here. Maybe they always meet in some establishment, maybe owned by one of them."

Unchosen meanwhile continued studying his book, still listening to the conversation on the side.

Ambigious said: "Makes sense. But we can't just open every door in the lower district in the hopes of finding a conspiracy in the making."

freeZe was just about to say something but stopped when she realized that she wasn't actually allowed to say it in the presence of Undira, which her Eye-and-Claws mark reminded freeZe of. It was like a subtle resistance, she could easily ignore it but she knew it was there for a reason. She carefully thought about her words, maybe it was better to phrase it as a question and let Undira tell her what she knew.

She said: "Unchosen mentioned that you also researched the enchantments in the artificial bedrock, what did you find out?"

Undira replied: "Well, beyond that they are really complex and contain runes I've never seen before, not much. I was able to vaguely see some of what they do, for example the entrance gate's enchantment allows it to deform itself without external magic. The runes also keep moving around whenever I try to get a closer look at them. It's really crazy stuff, I didn't even know that enchantments could do that."

TehLulz seemed to face similar problems as freeZe, he said: "From what Fire told me, a lot of the city is enchanted in some way."

Suddenly Undira's face lit up. "You know what I also found out? I once had a friend explain the specifics of portals and from what she said switching destinations is actually a very difficult spell that can't really be made autonomous. With the potion I found out that the portals in the Mage Guild aren't operated with magic alone. There are actually tiny demons sitting in them that do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to linking up portals. Tiny and foul mouthed demons at that, which is how I found out that they were in there in the first place."

freeZe said: "That could be useful… but for now we'll need those names and locations where we can find them. Our time is probably running low and we best start doing some questioning."

Undira asked: "We could also just dump my list at the Guard once it's written down."

Ambigious shook his head. "Nope, if there is only one corrupt guy in there we have a problem."

"Fair." Undira said.

Unchosen stood up. "While you do those names, I'll look over to the Guard and see if I can get some samples to finally shed some light on what this wonder poison is."

After he had left the room Undira began: "Jardun Rainfall, assistant professor in the Mage Guild. Sandra Treebranch, Carpenter Guild. Norin…"


	85. Chapter 84

Twenty-eight names, twenty-eight questionings but they still knew just as much as before: painfully little. Ambigious, TehLulz, freeZe and Undira had spent the better part of the day running between the various guilds and searching for the potentially involved people Undira had named. None of them had revealed anything of interest to them.

"Well, that was a waste of time." Ambigious said. "Let's hope that Unchosen can identify the poison so that we haven't completely wasted this day. Anyways, thanks for your help Undira."

Undira smiled. "I don't think we're done yet. I'd like you to accompany me down into the lower districts. While we questioned those people I had an idea or two."

With those words she took the lead and went ahead towards the nearest entrance to the lower districts, in this case the one near the Guard. Once they arrived at the bottom of the staircase she stopped.

She said: "What I thought about was that with the potion I could perhaps invoke some of the enchantments down here, maybe there are secret passages that operate like the city gates."

Suddenly TehLulz felt a sting on the back of his hand. The mark was telling him to prevent Undira from interacting with the enchantments, from what he understood for her own safety. Fire had mentioned that there were mechanisms in place that would lash out on anyone unauthorized trying to interact with the enchantments on the eyes, it didn't take much to assume that this was also true for the enchantments in the artificial bedrock.

Undira noticed his unease and asked: "Is everything alright?"

TehLulz said: "Yes… no."

Just before he was about to continue, he had a thought. If he understood the hierarchy of the Eye-and-Claws correctly, higher ranks shared both the privileges and responsibilities of lower ranks. His mark had the highest rank of them all so logically he could temporarily fill any specific role he needed to. The role he was thinking about specifically was the one that Daron held, the recruiter.

"Hold on." He said, much to the confusion of Undira.

He focused his thoughts into his mark, searching for information on how he could assume the recruiter role. He really wished that the mark had an instruction manual of some sort.

A sudden surge of information went through his head, giving him the exact knowledge he needed. Turns out it did have one. The instructions to recruiting were easy enough. All he had to do was create a partial copy of his own mark and imprint it in Undira's skin. However he was also warned that he was personally responsible for whoever he recruited until the mark was finalized.

He sighed. At this point they didn't really have a lot of options left, if against all odds Undira was not truly on their side she already knew too much either way.

He said: "Undira, give me your hand please."

Undira gave him a quizzical look but then extended her right hand. "Uuuh… sure?"

TehLulz took her right hand into his left, then raised his own right hand to the height of his face, palm facing inwards. With a deep breath he entered an enchanting trance, the hum that escaped his mouth was low pitched and quiet. After a few seconds the Eye-and-Claws mark on the back of his hand faded back into visibility, the red eye lightly glowing.

Undira was increasingly uneasy but didn't try to pull away. TehLulz lowered the back of his hand onto Undira's. There was a dim flash of red light and a scream.

Undira quickly pulled her hand away, rubbing the back of it. "Ow! What the hell!"

freeZe asked: "What did you do?"

TehLulz raised his hands defensively, as he did he saw how his own mark vanished again, Undira's was still very visible, TehLulz noticed that it was missing the claw marks below the eye.

He said: "I think I have a lot of explaining to do."

Undira said: "Yeah, you do. What kind of rune is this anyways and why can it be imprinted in living matter?"

TehLulz began: "So, look. When the Mencur-Besh find a human that's trustworthy and has useful skills they give them one of those marks. Well, not exactly what you have but nevermind the details. I just gave you a partial copy of mine, I can't give full marks like a Mencur-Besh can."

"What." Undira said.

freeZe took over for TehLulz: "I know this might be a little much all of a sudden-"

Undira cut her off: "No, no, no. I understand completely, I was just surprised. It all makes sense now! There were always people I had seen around the Mencur-Besh more often, others who rose through the ranks of a guild a little bit too quickly. So far I just chalked it up to random chance or other influences. It. All. Makes. Sense. Now."

She pushed her palms against her face lightly, through her hands she continued: "I should have talked to them. I should have asked more. I… am so glad that we ran into each other after that enchanting session."

She looked directly at TehLulz now. "Why did you give me that mark now of all times?"

TehLulz answered: "Because you probably would have gotten torn apart the second you tried to directly invoke an enchantment here. It's no secret that the Mencur-Besh built Rockhaven but most people don't know the whole extent of their influence."

Undira seemed to think about what he said for a moment, then reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a flask of the demon tongue potion. She took a bit of it herself, then passed the flask on to TehLulz.

After taking a sip he didn't feel all too different, just like Unchosen had told him. He opened his mouth to speak and was surprised at what came out. It was exactly what he wanted to say but it sounded foreign, inhuman.

Ambigious said: "Give me some of that potion as well please, I'll get a major case of brain melt if I have to listen to more of that."

freeZe seemed to agree.

Undira cleared her throat and talked in the demonic language: "This is amazing. Let's have a look at the enchantments in here."

She closed her eyes and seemed to look at the runes in the artificial bedrock.

"They don't move around anymore, must be the mark… wait. TehLulz, you have to see this."

TehLulz closed his eyes as well, his mind reached out to the runes. To his surprise this enchantment was even more massive than he had thought, not quite as intricate as that of the eyes but the sheer scale of it was beyond anything he had assumed. It seemed that not small pieces of artificial bedrock were enchanted, the entirety of the city had one big set of runes applied to it.

"This… is not what I expected." He said.

Undira hummed a high note with demonic undertones, suddenly the wall next to them moved, it moved away from Undira. As she took a few steps towards it, the wall retreated further.

Undira's humming stopped, the wall remained in place. She said: "This… this has possibilities. While I invoked the enchantment it was like I could see a bit into the walls, I saw other tunnels. I kind of want to go and see what I can find."

TehLulz said: "If that's so, we're coming with you. Especially since now that I gave you the mark, it's my responsibility to make sure that you accidentally break something."

Ambigious smirked. "And you want to see whatever's hidden here."

"That too."

freeZe said: "Maybe we'll run into our conspiracy by pure chance, crazier things have happened."

"Let's go then!" Undira called out and immediately resumed her humming as she confidently strode ahead into the depths of Rockhaven, followed by Ambigious, freeZe and finally TehLulz who had started humming as well, causing the artificial bedrock to close back behind them.


	86. Chapter 85

A roaring flame sat in freeZe's raised palm, providing light for them as they walked through the darkness. A lot of the mechanisms that were in place everywhere else in the city seemingly didn't apply to their temporary tunnel. The artificial bedrock remained pitch black no matter how much you stepped on it. This also seemed to include whatever kept the air in the tunnels from going bad. The air in their little pocket got quite stuffy if they didn't occasionally visit a tunnel to get fresh air.

freeZe walked next to her brother, they really couldn't do much more since only Undira and TehLulz were able to see where they were going. It was impossible to keep track of time since everything looked exactly the same.

After an undefined amount of time Undira suddenly stopped walking. She said: "There's a big hollow space ahead and we aren't deep enough for it to be Rock Bottom. Let's see what it is."

Ambigious asked: "Can you see if there are people?"

Undira replied: "Only indirectly, using the lit up portions of the walls. That room is completely dark though."

Undira resumed her humming and started walking again, more slowly this time. freeZe counted roughly fifty steps before the wall ahead of them opened up.

The room she saw was completely circular but almost empty. The only thing that stood out was what looked to be a portal frame.

"Huh." Undira said. "Didn't know the city had something like this."

freeZe meanwhile walked over to the portal frame and inspected it more closely. It was made from artificial bedrock, that much was clear. She placed her hand against the side of the frame and released an unbound energy pulse.

She promptly was greeted by a high pitched voice: "Who the hell do you think you are to wake me up? The archmage?"

freeZe answered in the demonic language: "The apprentice of a former one."

The voice shrieked in surprise: "Ah! Didn't expect to get heard there. So… what year is it?"

freeZe was intrigued by the demon's response, for how long had it been here? It also seemed that this one was less foul mouthed than the ones Undira had talked about.

She replied: "Just about past five-thousand-five-hundred."

After a bit of silence the demon replied: "Daaaaaamn. Been a while. When they bound me to this thing they told me that this would be some sort of secret meeting place for the higher-ups in the Mage Guild. Probably realized they can just as well meet in an office. Anyways, what can I do for you?"

freeZe waved her hand to signal the others to come closer, when they arrived she told the demon: "Are there more rooms like this?"

"How am I supposed to know? I've slept in here since two-thousand-whatever."

Undira stepped up. "Something about other portals maybe?"

The demon slowly replied: "Oh. Those." After another pause it said: "Yeah, could tell you but not allowed to. The lady who summoned me was real clear on what happens if I do. Nothing fun, let me tell you."

freeZe looked to the others. Ambigious caught her glance and asked the demon: "You wouldn't make an exception if we all had a certain rune on our hands, would you?"

A long silence followed.

Finally the demon spoke again: "I get it now why they say not to take indefinite contracts unless you're really sure. Cause you might end up sleeping for so long that your senses keep sleeping after you wake up. I see your marks now and yeah, the protocol states that I'm to answer anything I can. Just give me half an hour or so, need to contact some of the others. Bureaucracy and that. Just… I don't know sit on the floor until then."

The four of them walked away from the portal, instead of sitting on the floor TehLulz constructed some crude chairs for them using the artificial bedrock.

"That's at least something." Ambigious said. "Maybe we'll get some actual clues for once."

freeZe replied: "Would be good, if we include today we spent two days without getting any meaningful evidence. I also hope that Unchosen manages to analyze that poison."

Undira said: "I don't know about you but this is really exciting. I feel like I'm uncovering some ancient secrets here while at the same time hunting down a conspiracy."

"It does look that way." freeZe said.

She really wished it would be just that, Undira was blissfully unaware of what the real reason for the entire situation was. If they hadn't needed the Axe to construct the Ban Hammer, Fire never would have been poisoned and this whole conspiracy situation would have never presented itself.

The more she thought about it the more the entire thing stunk, how probable was it really that a conspiracy here in Rockhaven had one of the few substances that could kill a Mencur-Besh that quickly? Not only that but with a plan ready that they could use to benefit from the situation? Something about this was very wrong but she needed more information to find out exactly what. Perhaps the demon would provide some of the answers.

* * *

He unlocked the door to his house and went inside, a few glances and a quick scan for thoughts assured him that he was indeed alone. He hurried up the stairs and into the bathroom, it had been a long day and a relaxing bath was exactly what he needed right now. While the water climbed higher he left the room in order to get a quick bite to eat.

Everything was going according to plan. The delivery of silver had arrived just after he had stepped out of the portal, the few blacksmiths they had were now instructing their mages on how to quickly turn that silver into crossbow bolts. It had been easy, really. He had used his high rank in the Mage Guild to place a large order of silver for "shielding".

In around a day they would have enough bolts to overwhelm the Mage Guild and use the resulting magical advantage to take the rest of the city by force. It had also helped that the figure confirmed that the Mencur-Besh themselves were exceptionally weak to silver.

Once they were out of the city it was time for a new era to begin, a Rockhaven for humans alone. While he would prefer to take the title of king for himself, he did realize that that would only destabilize the city further than his current plan would anyways. He'd probably have to settle for archmage, Emilia wasn't with them and judging by her stance on the Axe she probably was against them so she had to go as well. It was less than ideal but it had to be done.

Just as he was about to return to the bathroom, a yellow orb appeared beside his head, someone was trying to talk to him. Under normal circumstances he would have ignored it but yellow usually meant something was up. He gave the orb mental permission to establish the connection.

On the other side of the connection was a woman, he didn't quite recall her name but it was one of his followers. Her voice was uneasy. "This is Sandra Treebranch. Something bad just happened."

Great. He suppressed a sigh. "Go on."

"Earlier today four people appeared at the guild and asked questions, I think they know something about us."

All frustration disappeared, this really was important. "Were they with the Guard or not?"

Sandra replied: "No, two enchanters, one mage and one blacksmith. From what I have heard they also went everywhere else and asked similar questions."

He said: "Did you recognize them?"

"Only one, namely Undira… something, enchanter."

He sharply inhaled. "So she's against us after all."

"A few minutes ago I saw them walking in the streets and followed them, they went underground."

"Good work Sandra, don't go after them further, I'll handle the rest."

He terminated the connection immediately. He calmly walked back up to the bathroom, turned off the water and pulled the plug. This would be an even longer day than he had anticipated. Undira was dangerous, she knew much about the city and the Mencur-Besh and could seriously endanger his plan if she found the right people, which she had evidently done already.

He unlocked his safe and took out his notebook. He flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for, he had put together a group who he could send after troublemakers. He admitted to himself that nobody in his order truly was fit for open confrontation. They had no proper soldiers, which was why their plan relied on the element of surprise first and then on superior firepower.

He conjured up a communication orb and contacted all of the names on that page at the same time. Once the connection was established he said: "A group of four people has been asking around, they were last seen entering the lower districts near the Guard. Find and eliminate them."


	87. Chapter 86

Getting a sample from Fire's drink had been easy enough, the whole tablecloth was stained with it and the soldiers stationed in the palace allowed him to cut off a generous patch. What had taken Unchosen the longest was getting into a position to ask in the first place. There had been plenty of other people ahead of him, what exactly they wanted in the palace wasn't clear.

It was already past noon when he exited the palace, the sample of tablecloth balled up and stuffed into a large glass cylinder he had taken from the alchemy room in Shadow's house. He sincerely hoped that the poison was still in the cloth and hadn't evaporated, according to Irna Bluemoss' book there was quite a number of poisons which would do exactly that.

He crossed the central plaza quickly and returned to Shadow's house, nobody seemed to be surprised by him carrying around a cylinder of stained cloth, alchemists probably walked the streets with stranger things in hand.

Unchosen unlocked the door and went straight down the corridor. The alchemy room was exactly opposite the library. The inside was similar to the lab he had studied in in Fire's base, everything was covered with obsidian, ingredients and tools were orderly stored in various cupboards.

He put on his protective gloves and mask, then opened the cylinder with the cloth and cut off a small strip. It was time to begin the tedious process of identifying which of the thousands of possible poisons had killed Fire.

* * *

They were walking through the walls of the lower districts again, the demon didn't know much but what it did tell them was very interesting. It seemed that there was a multitude of hidden rooms scattered through the ground below Rockhaven but only one other portal had been activated, that same portal had been very active in recent times. The demon had told freeZe the portal frequency since as a mage she was the only one in the group able to set a portal to it.

She had decided against travelling directly to the portal since it seemed unwise to teleport head-first into what had to be the conspiracy's headquarters.

While they walked, freeZe let the portal frequency pass through her head, something seemed familiar about it but she couldn't place a finger on it. Further pondering was cut off by the wall in front of them opening up into a tunnel.

Undira said: "Let's just follow this one for a while, maintaining enchanting trance for that amount of time is exhausting."

TehLulz nodded.

freeZe had never been in this tunnel before, she asked: "Undira, where is this?"

"Hmm… I think it's back near the entrance we used, we went in a big circle around the city."

Ambigious said: "Good thing we're very used to walking." He then paused and said: "Wait… I'm feeling something. No idea what but something's over that way." He pointed down the tunnel.

"What do you mean?" Asked TehLulz.

"Funny story. I ran into Shadow when we were at Rock Bottom. She kind of told me that I had the same magic detection potential as freeZe but no actual affinities."

freeZe opened her sense for magic. There definitely was a spell being cast a ways down the tunnel. There was nothing suspicious about that but sneaking around the unknown parts of Rockhaven already had put freeZe on edge.

She asked: "Should we avoid it?"

The others shrugged. TehLulz said: "Can't go into the walls right now, trance is gone and I'd need a few minutes to get back into it."

After he had stopped talking whoever was casting the spell came around the corner. It was a group of five, they had a bright orb floating above them, evidently the spell they had felt, all of them were wearing concealing clothes and very clearly carried crossbows. Nobody had to think twice to know that this was bad news.

It seemed that the group had spotted them too, one of them yelled: "It's them. Fire at will!"

Ambigious and TehLulz were only armed with the daggers they always kept on them and none of them were wore armor so they took the logical course of action and ducked into a niche. No second too soon, crossbow bolts flew past them and impacted somewhere down the tunnel.

freeZe knew that she was the one who had to act, running up with a dagger was suicide, magic was the only option. Her eyes lit up like green flashlights, she felt how her life force started activating, ready to be converted into whatever deadly element she desired. She had to think back to the Graveyard of the Forest where she first encountered her magic's will. Now that will was fused into her own.

freeZe concentrated her magic into her hands where it became small bolts of electricity bouncing between her fingers. The spell was ready. She stepped out from the niche, suddenly she felt an impact on her lower right abdomen, then another on the same side but higher on her chest. Her magic fizzled and her eyes fell back to their regular lightless glow. She heard two more impacts behind her, the other bolts had missed.

Everything felt very slow, freeZe looked down and saw two crossbow bolts lodged in her torso, a split second later the pain set in, only to be quickly dampened by the adrenaline in her veins. Her magic still didn't come back. She realized that the bolts must be either coated in silver or made completely from it. Whenever she tried to summon up her magic it felt like her life force was weighed down by heavy anchors.

As her world returned to normal speed, she heard one of them yelling: "Hit the mage!"

The group started reloading their crossbows, the one who hadn't fired lined up their shot. freeZe wanted to run but seemed unable to move. She felt a hand pull her back into the niche, it was Ambigious.

Her brother said nothing but the expression on his face spoke volumes. If he had armor of any kind he'd have stormed out there and attacked but even through his anger he knew that it just wouldn't work.

* * *

After a few hours of work Unchosen had been able to verify that there was indeed poison left in the cloth, which allowed him to take a few hundred poisons out of the equation. He had also been able to disqualify a large portion of the poisons in the book using a series of broad tests.

The difficult part was about to begin, he had roughly twenty poisons left in his list of potential candidates. Eliminating those would be more difficult since instead of crossing off whole categories with one test he'd have to randomly test for specific poisons. At least he could prepare and run several experiments at a time to speed the process up somewhat.

Alchemy was very relaxing to Unchosen, he felt right at home between the different reagents and the laboratory gear, it took him way back to when he studied chemistry. Naturally the practical parts weren't the only thing that interested him, otherwise he'd have dropped out of his studies in the first semester. Examining different reactions on paper was essential to successful research, it had been proven to him time and time again.

While he was thinking three of his experiments had finished, he double checked with Bluemoss' book and then crossed off five items from his list. Admittedly, none of them could have harmed Mencur-Besh anyways but he'd rather eliminate those first since he wasn't sure if he even had the ingredients to test for the ones he was looking for.

In the meantime another experiment finished, allowing him to cross off two more poisons, leaving him with thirteen remaining. He quickly went through the entire list again to see which poisons he should test for next.

* * *

Undira whispered: "Don't pull the bolts out."

freeZe finally regained some manner of control over her body. She could barely speak since her right lung seemed to have stopped functioning. She said: "They have silver bolts."

Undira replied: "Still, it'll probably bleed you out."

Another round of suppressive fire flew down the tunnel, the group was significantly closer now.

freeZe desperately tried to use her magic again but any attempt was blocked by the silver. She knew that silver could only block a certain amount of energy before becoming saturated but she also knew that it was a very high amount, too high even for her.

As the next five bolts zipped down the tunnel Ambigious jumped up and threw his dagger at the group. They heard a cry of pain. Ambigious' throw hadn't been very accurate but the dagger managed to get stuck in one of the assailant's legs nonetheless. Not enough to stop them but enough to buy a bit more time.

freeZe thought about what Shadow had taught her and if any of it could help her now. She then remembered something Shadow had told her but she had heard it another time from the professor at the Mage Guild. He had talked about how burnout doesn't affect mages casting with an external source since the magic never goes through the caster's body.

"Ambigious." She said. "There is a gem in my right pocket. I can't reach it."

Without hesitating Ambigious reached into the pocket and retrieved the gem. Even through the dampening influence of the silver freeZe could feel the energy contained within. She took the gem in her left hand and slowly put herself into a more upright position.

She said to her friends: "When I step out, cover your ears and close your eyes."

She had to muster up the rest of her concentration to be able to direct the magic inside the gem, which promptly started emitting sparks. freeZe waited for the next volley of bolts. A completely different thought went through her head, these people didn't seem to be disciplined, they didn't move in formation or bothered to stagger their shots. These people were not soldiers. freeZe pushed the thought out of her mind, she could worry about it later. As soon as all five bolts flew past, freeZe stepped out again, sparking gem in hand.

With a pained shout she unleashed however much energy she could manage from the gem. A thick bolt of lightning shot out of the gem, striking the crossbow of the foremost person, then taking the path of least resistance through the others. One of them reacted quickly enough to create some sort of rudimentary personal barrier, which absorbed most of the spell but shattered and let the remaining energy through.

A blinding flash and a deafening thunder filled the tunnel, once she could see and hear again, freeZe observed the aftermath. The four unprotected assailants had been instantly turned into charred corpses, the fifth one seemingly had survived but was lying on the floor screaming in pain.

Now that the danger was over, freeZe herself was reminded of the two crossbow bolts stuck in her torso by her own ever increasing pain. She grit her teeth and started walking towards the only survivor. She might be wounded but she still had questions to ask. However when she opened her mouth to ask them, all that came out was a painful cough.

Ambigious, TehLulz and Undira ran up to her side. freeZe gave them a thumbs up to signal that beyond her wounds she was fine, then pointed at the survivor, who by now had recovered enough to transition from screaming in pain to cowering in fear.

While Ambigious helped his sister sit down, Undira slowly walked up the survivor, apparently a woman, who was now with her back against the tunnel wall.

Undira leaned in and asked: "Do you know what happens when you attempt to imprint a rune in living matter?" She delivered a swift kick to the woman's ribs. "Do you now?"

As she got no reply she continued: "Rune rejection is a very ugly and painful process but it's almost never fatal." She used her demonic voice to conjure up a rune floating above her hand while continuing to speak in her normal voice. "And you're about to find exactly how painful if you don't start talking!"

After fully processing the threat being made to her, the woman responded: "No! I'll talk!"

Undira said: "That's a good start. Now, what kind of unholy conspiracy are you part of and who is at its head?"

The woman swallowed, then reluctantly started: "We… don't want them here in the city. They control the court for their own purposes."

"Who?" Undira snapped.

"The… Mencur-Besh. We just want the city to be free, they need to die."

Undira continued: "You didn't answer my second question. Who is your leader?" She moved the rune closer.

The woman flinched. "I don't know his name. I only know he lives in a house not far from the Mage Guild. It… it has blooming nether wart patterns on its wall."

"More!"

"I don't…" Undira moved the rune directly in front of the woman's face. "Wait! No! He has a… a book. Don't know what's in it but it must be important."

TehLulz walked over to Undira, he said: "I think that's all we're getting out of her."

The woman looked up hopefully. "May I go now?"

Undira pondered for a few seconds, then made her rune disappear. She said: "No."

All hope vanished from the woman's face.

Undira leaned in further and further as she talked. "You conspire against the Mencur-Besh to kill them, when we start asking around you try to kill us and next you'll probably run to that house with those wonderful patterns and tell your praised leader exactly what happened so he can send more of his attack dogs after us. You can promise what you want, I'm not taking that chance."

Undira turned to TehLulz. "Dagger."

TehLulz hesitated but then reached into his coat and handed his dagger over to Undira.

Suddenly everything started getting dark. freeZe had been so focused on Undira's interrogation that she had completely forgot about her own situation. She desperately tried to stay awake, she wanted to see Undira finish what she had started. However just as Undira raised the dagger, freeZe was enveloped by darkness, the last thing she heard before completely losing consciousness was the woman's scream.


	88. Chapter 87

Before starting the next batch Unchosen looked through his available ingredients again, then realized he definitely had insufficient materials to test for the poisons that were lethal to Mencur-Besh, instead he decided to test for the remaining non-lethal poisons. When the batch finished, Unchosen was completely baffled, all experiments of the batch tested negative as expected, but one of them was undeniably positive.

The poison in the cloth was Shineroot essence, that was clear beyond a doubt. But that didn't make any sense, it would have just been metabolized into glowing wine like they had seen back in Drandin.

This opened up several other questions. Could it be possible that two poisons were used? Why? What if Shineroot essence really was the only thing in that drink?

Unchosen's thoughts were interrupted by the loud noise of the front door being pushed open forcefully. He jumped up from his chair and slowly opened the door of the alchemy room, a bottle of acid in his other hand to at least have some description of a weapon against an intruder.

It turned out that Unchosen's paranoia, while well founded, was unnecessary. The person who had opened the door was Ambigious. He looked to be very exhausted, like he had been running from something.

"Unchosen! We need your help." He said. "freeZe's been hit, silver bolts, no time to explain. We need someone to treat her."

Unchosen dove back into the lab, put down the acid, then rushed over to Ambigious.

Unchosen explained: "I don't have medical equipment but I know someone in the Alchemist Guild we can trust. How bad is it?"

Ambigious ran ahead, Unchosen quickly followed and closed the door, he hadn't realized how dark it already was. As he looked to the street he saw exactly how bad it was. freeZe was being carried by TehLulz and Undira, she had been hit by two crossbow bolts, external bleeding seemed to be limited but he didn't know about internal bleeding, especially since one of the bolts seemed to have pierced her lungs.

Unchosen said: "Follow me."

He went ahead of them as quickly as they could follow. There weren't any people in the streets, if they were lucky they wouldn't encounter anyone until the central plaza. If there was anything they didn't need right now it was more attention.

* * *

They arrived at the Guild without anyone taking note of them. Fourth door to the right after the first staircase… that was where they would hopefully find Egis.

Getting freeZe up the staircases without causing her too much pain was difficult, she was awake but only barely, it seemed that the immediate shock of the injury had worn off and she was feeling the full extent of her pain.

Without knocking Unchosen opened the door to Egis' lab and was relieved to see the spindly alchemist working on an experiment.

Egis quickly turned around, his neon green eyes pierced through Unchosen for a second before he recognized him. Before Egis had any opportunity to ask why Unchosen had barged into his lab, the others followed and at the sight of freeZe it seemed that the situation was clear.

Egis asked: "How did that happen?"

Ambigious quickly explained: "We were in the lower districts when a group of five people with crossbows showed up and started shooting. They belong to the same group that poisoned Fire."

Egis took a closer look. "Those are silver bolts, aren't they?" He quickly looked into freeZe's eyes to make sure she understood him. "Did you try to channel any magic after they hit you?"

freeZe nodded.

"How much?"

Ambigious answered in his sister's stead. "According to Shadow, she's got an exceptionally large pool of life force."

Egis sighed. "That'll leave some silver burns for a while. She will live once the bolts are out and the bleeding is stopped. Get her up on that table."

Egis pointed to a table that had a few empty diamond-glass alembics standing on it, then promptly sent them to the floor with a sweeping motion of his arm. They impacted on the ground but didn't break.

* * *

Unchosen admired Egis' work as he treated freeZe, he worked quickly and efficiently, first removing the bolts, then dressing the external wounds and finally administering a weak regeneration potion to eliminate any chance of the internal bleeding being lethal. freeZe remained on the table, still breathing quickly but with less pain than before.

Ambigious asked: "Why didn't you give her a stronger potion?"

Egis explained: "When struck by silver weapons mages lose the ability to properly channel their life force while the silver is in their bodies. Normally the silver can be removed and the wound can be treated like any other. Only if the mage tries to cast while in contact with the silver does it get complicated. The tissue surrounding the wound acts as if it was burned. The only way to properly heal these burns is by using the mage's own magical regeneration, in most cases using strong potions causes scarring."

Ambigious asked: "How long until she recovers?"

Egis thought for a few seconds. "A few days before the pain is gone, longer to completely heal the damage, the exact time is highly variable."

freeZe was meanwhile slowly falling asleep. Everyone else sat down on whatever was available.

Egis looked at each of them, then stopped. "You must be Undira."

Undira replied: "How do you know?"

"Erin told me about you a couple of times while she was working here with me, it seemed like she admires you." He paused for a few seconds, then stood up and extended his hand. "Where are my manners, Egis Degons. Pleased to meet you."

Unchosen said: "There is actually another reason why I came here. So, I got a sample from the poison and ran some tests…"

Egis finished Unchosen's sentence for him: "…to find out it was Shineroot essence, something explicitly harmless to Mencur-Besh. We seem to have come to the same conclusion."

Unchosen idly picked up some lab ware. "That pretty much confirms that something strange is happening here." He then looked over to Ambigious: "So, did you find out anything down there?"

Ambigious said: "Well, for one that Undira isn't someone you want to have mad at you. Otherwise, you could say that. Wait…"

Ambigious got up and walked over to Egis, extending his hand. Egis understood, Ambigious wanted to see where in the Eye-and-Claws hierarchy he stood.

"Well… we already bent the rules once today." His gaze went over to Undira. "Egis, Undira, we might have a few things to tell you."

It seemed that Ambigious didn't know where to begin so Unchosen took over for him, they had already brought him up to speed on Undira's mark. From what he remembered, Egis' mark was just one rank below theirs.

"First of all, I'd like to make sure all of us here are…"

To Unchosen's own surprise Egis seemed to have picked up on where he was going. He asked: "Players?"

"Exactly. I know all of us are, Undira?" Unchosen asked, glad that he didn't have to dance around the issue.

Undira said: "Yeah, one of the first as you might suspect. Got in a bit after they went big with their recruiting."

Unchosen said: "Good, then we can talk openly here. I would have liked to avoid bringing this up since both Fire and Shadow advised us against it but neither of them have been available in the last few days." He took a deep breath. "We have a hacker problem."

Egis said: "I'm assuming this time some damage was done."

TehLulz explained: "That would be an understatement. They have the server under their control and are holding new players hostage, I don't know the exact relation to real time but it must have been at least a few days by now."

Undira said: "Wait… you're implying that Fire's a player as well. Am I hearing what I think I'm hearing?"

"There is only one player-controlled Mencur-Besh and that's Fire, if that's where you're going." Ambigious said.

Unchosen continued: "Now, Fire somehow got captured by the hackers as well, which is how we ran into him. He freed us from the slave mine they are running and now we're trying to find pieces of the physical manifestation of some type of backdoor the admins put in. The Axe is one of those pieces, so Fire may have slightly lied about why he needs it."

Egis asked: "Do you think this attack has anything to do with the hackers?"

TehLulz shook his head. "No, they haven't been on the server for long enough, this is an old conspiracy that might date back to a very early failed coup. From what Fire told us they also don't know nearly enough about how this world works to be able to poison someone at a royal banquet in Rockhaven."

Ambigious continued: "That's what we knew before we went into the lower districts. Now we know that they meet in an isolated room in the depths of the city that's only accessible through a portal. We also know that their leader lives in a house with nether wart blossom engravings and has a book where everything about the conspiracy is written."

Egis thought for a moment. "I might know where that house is, in the section behind the Mage Guild. I can't quite recall his name but he is a Life mage with a fairly high position in the Guild."

Undira smacked her hand down on the table she was sitting on. "I always knew something was up with that guy. Used to be outspoken against the Mencur-Besh but all of a sudden went quiet after the failed assassination of Queen Rebecca Runewright of Rockhaven… I always loved the alliteration of her name… nevermind that, it makes a lot more sense now."

"How do you know it's exactly him?" Unchosen asked.

Undira said: "Simple, only one high-ranking Life mage in the entire Guild. The others either teach at the University or aren't really interested in rank."

Unchosen asked: "So, now that everyone knows what is happening, what's our next move?"

Ambigious immediately said: "I say we break into that guy's house and steal his book, then take it straight to Captain Bedrock, very unlikely that he's against us and if he is we are screwed either way."

TehLulz said: "For a plan you came up with on the spot that actually sounds very reasonable."

Ambigious grinned. "What? My spontaneous plans are always reasonable."

Unchosen remarked: "It doesn't involve punching the hackers through their computer screens like you suggested in the quarry multiple times, so I'm inclined to agree."

Undira asked: "But how do you actually go about that? We can't just walk up to the house and melt open the door."

A few seconds of silence passed. Undira and TehLulz looked at each other, both having realized that they very well could.

Egis said: "I would advise a bit of caution, it is very likely that the house is guarded or at least watched. This is a task for a single person. There are also a couple of mixtures I theorized that would be perfect for just this occasion."

Unchosen said: "That's a good idea, we should wait until morning either way, a burglary is one thing but a burglary and a fight against a mage is another. I also have the feeling that we'll want this guy alive."

"It's decided then." Egis jumped up and rubbed his hands. "Unchosen, if you would be so kind and help me brew the potion? It'll be a long night."


	89. Chapter 88

When he woke up TehLulz could see rays of light shining through the redstone fans on the ceiling, judging by their angle it was still quite early. He was lying on a comfortable bed, not unlike the ones Shadow had in her house. Unchosen and Egis probably were still in the lab working on their potion, after they started they had soon urged the others to leave. From what he gathered you absolutely didn't want to breathe in some of the byproducts of the brewing process without a mask.

There were multiple more beds in the room he was in, currently only three others were occupied by Ambigious, freeZe and Undira, who were all still sleeping.

He swung his feet out of the bed and started walking towards the door.

Undira's voice stopped him: "Off to check on the potion?"

TehLulz simply nodded, not wanting to wake up the others. He carefully opened the door and slipped outside. The room just left was in was a tier below Egis' laboratory, from what Egis told him it was used as a medical room in wartimes but now served as a bedroom for anyone that needed it.

Even at this early hour there were still plenty of alchemists walking the tiers, going between labs and ingredient stores. TehLulz went up the stairs to Egis' lab, then knocked on the door, resulting in a pleasant resonance.

Unchosen was the one to open the door, he was still wearing his mask, which concealed his eyes behind two panes of glass. Upon closer inspection it was clear that he was very tired, though he looked content.

Through his mask he said: "Come in, air should be safe to breathe, we engaged the fans a couple of minutes ago."

The room looked more cluttered than the day before, TehLulz suspected that every bit of equipment that once had been in the cupboards was now somewhere on a table. An impressive piping construction had been built that seemed to span the entire room.

Egis was at the end of the central table, currently filling a flask with what seemed to be the end result of the night. As opposed to Unchosen, Egis was not wearing a mask and didn't seem to be tired in the least.

"Ah, welcome. You arrived just in time." Egis called out.

The potion he was now holding looked interesting to say the least, it was pitch black but occasionally streaks of other colors seemed to pulsate through the mixture.

Egis said: "I spent years developing this formula, you know? And now it is finally here. I have yet to give it a name."

TehLulz asked: "What does it do?"

Egis explained: "Usually potions only improve one aspect of a body, be that strength, speed, you name it. The more of those potions you drink at the same time the more you risk a conflict between the effects, the result of which can range from inconvenient over painful up to lethal."

Egis placed the flask on the table, then pointed to himself. "Naturally it is possible to slowly improve your body with alchemy but that process takes years and can backfire just as easily. I was quite lucky that it only cost me my hair. Now, this potion is like your usual potions with a very important difference, it improves every aspect of your body, allowing even completely unaltered people to achieve incredible feats. I was told it was insanity to think this potion was possible but here it is."

TehLulz asked: "So, who will drink it?"

Unchosen had sat down on a chair in the meantime, he had also taken off his mask. "We don't know yet. It'll probably be either you or Undira since you are the only ones who can distort the artificial bedrock to get into the house."

Just that moment the door flew open and Ambigious and Undira walked in. freeZe was not with them but TehLulz trusted Egis' promise that her life was not in danger. The Guild also seemed to be reasonably safe from the conspiracy with the Eye-and-Claws presence being as high as it was.

Undira asked: "Did someone say my name?"

Egis greeted them: "Good morning, the potion is ready."

TehLulz said: "So, Undira. One of us two has to drink the potion and steal the book. If you don't mind I would prefer to be the one."

Undira thought for a second. "That would probably be best, yeah. I'm not one for sneaking around."

It was decided, TehLulz walked over to Egis and reached for the potion. Egis stopped him.

He said: "There are a couple of things you should know first. While this potion will allow you to do great things, it is still an experiment. I can guarantee that while it is active it does exactly what I intended but once it wears off you will experience after effects when your metabolism finds out what it did while under the effect of the potion. I can guarantee that they are not lethal but it will be very unpleasant and it will probably stay that way for a while."

TehLulz took a few seconds to think, his own well-being really did not matter in this situation as long as he could guarantee that the conspiracy was stopped.

He said: "I think I can hazard the consequences. Anything else?"

"Yes." Egis opened a drawer and pulled out what looked like a green wetsuit. "You'll need to wear this, it is designed to take on potion effects of its wearer. While for simple potions like invisibility you can do some trickery to affect clothes as well, that is not possible for a complex potion like this."

TehLulz spent a couple of minutes in an adjacent chamber squeezing into the suit, then returned to Egis. He took the potion from the table, just before he was about to drink it he was interrupted by Unchosen.

"Just so you know, that potion has demon speech built into it but sadly not the version that allows you to speak normally as well. So I have to tell you this now. Once you drink it I'll tell you a location I overheard from the eye, after you have the book it would be good if you took a look there as well. I have a feeling that it's important."

"I can do that." TehLulz said.

TehLulz uncorked the flask, then started drinking the potion. As the potion touched the inside of his mouth the effect stated to set in immediately. He felt how his heartbeat accelerated, how his senses got sharper, his thoughts clearer. This was only the beginning though. Once he had drank the entire flask he felt the effects growing more and more intense. His heartbeat sped up to speeds that probably would have killed a normal human. The entire process was uncomfortable to say the least.

TehLulz clamped his hand around the diamond-glass flask, to his own surprise it shattered in his grasp. He instinctively looked at his hand to check for splinters but not only was his hand completely unscathed but it also had turned black. As he looked down he saw that his entire body and the suit he was wearing had taken on the color of the surrounding obsidian.

He moved his hand over to a leather bound book that was lying on the table, almost instantly his skin changed color to blend in with the cover. He took a look around the room, everything was unnaturally clear and detailed, it was like he was focusing on every spot in his vision at once.

He then noticed that in the time it had taken him to move to the book, the shards from the flask hadn't even properly hit the ground yet. Was this what Fire meant when he talked about his combat ability? The others looked at him with a look of surprise, except for Egis, who was currently in the middle of a comically slow victory dance.

Unchosen was also in the process of drinking demon tongue potion. TehLulz tried bringing his perception back to normal speed and it did, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He heard the others talking but couldn't understand what they said, just like Unchosen had told him. Unchosen had finished drinking in the meantime.

He spoke and a location appeared in TehLulz' mind, this was the location of the house of the conspiracy leader. Then another location, this time on the opposite side of town on the very outskirts.

TehLulz gave Unchosen thumbs up, then walked towards the door and carefully opened it, now acutely aware of the strength the potion had given him. It was time to visit the house with the nether wart blooms.


	90. Chapter 89

TehLulz decided that going through the streets would attract too much attention, even with his body changing color he was still very visible while moving. After exiting the Guild he immediately leapt onto the next available roof. As he did so he felt his muscles and tendons straining, as if they were about to tear but still somehow held together.

The roofs of Rockhaven were not difficult to traverse, they all nicely lined up at the exact same height with a rare few buildings breaking the pattern. The gaps the streets created were no challenge either, he simply jumped across.

The conspiracy leader's house was still quite a distance away. As he leaped over yet another street TehLulz took a look down, he saw everyone walking in full clarity. A thought crossed his mind, with a potion like this he could probably take on a ghoul by himself without problems, among most other things, even if it didn't entirely feel like it. The entire time his body felt like it was being pushed way beyond what it was made to do. In fairness, this was exactly what was happening.

About two dozen leaps later he had finally arrived at his first target. TehLulz came to a rest on top of the building opposing the position Unchosen had transmitted to him. The house sure enough had nether wart blossom engravings and there only was one door on it, which eliminated all guessing he had to do, at least for now.

TehLulz wasn't sure whether the leader was home, he didn't know enough about his schedule to know. He instead focused on the windows, trying to spot any movement inside. After waiting and watching for a few minutes he decided that it was safe to go in.

* * *

He exited the portal and yawned, holding meetings at unusual times was not among his preferred activities, his life force was almost entirely drained. They had been necessary though, at least one of them, that one being the one taking place below ground. After the recent events his followers wanted answers and guarantees. It had been difficult to explain to them that their hunting squad had been taken down, from what it looked like four had been hit by an incredibly powerful electric discharge and the fifth one had simply been killed with a dagger.

He had looked more into who the people were who had been asking around, save for Undira of course, he knew exactly who she was. Nothing much had come from it except that the mage who had killed his followers must have been Shadow Wardbreaker's apprentice. This had taken him by surprise, ever since he had known her, Shadow had never taken apprentices. She had taught in the University certainly, but she never had taken a direct mentor position.

As he walked through the streets towards his own house he thought more about the implications. If Shadow had finally taken an apprentice it must have been because of some extraordinary talent or circumstance. Shadow had also not been seen in the last few days, which was not what he had expected. He had expected that she would finish the negotiations for the Axe or at least aid in the investigations but no, she just completely vanished. What was her position in this anyways? He knew she was somehow involved with the Mencur-Besh, it was no secret that "ascension" was something that they had come up with, though nothing beyond that was known.

He turned the corner to the street his house was located in, suddenly it felt as if something was off…

* * *

TehLulz jumped down on the street, the impact would have shattered his legs normally but now he landed without making a sound. He walked up to the door, closed his eyes and started humming, entering an enchanting trance. He clearly saw the runes in the artificial bedrock of the house, focused on the right ones and told the door to open.

Instead of swinging open, the door instead split down the middle and formed a gap large enough for TehLulz to pass through. The inside of the house was very tidy and had all the hallmarks of a very long-time residence, paintings adorned some walls, one wall was reserved for trophies and awards. TehLulz had no time to look at them, instead he started turning the house inside out in search for the book.

This was not the first time he had done this, early during his time as a journalist when no outside help could be found or hired he sometimes took to the streets himself if that meant he could uncover valuable information. At times back then he seriously considered quitting the desk job of writing altogether and doing the information gathering full-time. The fact that some of his expeditions had brought him dangerously close to being caught by the law, by no means wrongly, had convinced him otherwise.

What he was doing now was a little different though, back then he needed to take care that no part of his intrusion was noticed, here he just needed the book and then he needed to get out. He pulled drawers to the floor, rifled through cupboards and displaced paintings. He eventually came to the conclusion that the ground floor was not where the book was. He sprinted up the stairs, which lead directly into the bedroom.

He was about to start his usual routine when he noticed something. There was a relatively small painting of an ender pearl directly above the bed… too small actually. A bigger painting would have fit the style of the rest of the house better, this one left too much of the wall exposed. This was cliché but maybe it was what he was looking for.

TehLulz jumped onto the bed and lifted the painting.

* * *

Even though he was tired he now ran towards his house, his feeling hadn't been wrong. There was a gap in his front door, which should be impossible and yet there it was. He slowly moved through the gap to find his living room and kitchen completely devastated, a quick look into the other rooms on the ground floor gave him similar results.

One of his followers must have talked, probably the one in the hunting squad that hadn't been fried. This was bad. Suddenly it dawned on him, whoever had been here probably looked for his book. Before going upstairs he used the last of his non-essential life force to scan the house.

Someone was in his bedroom. The reading was too inaccurate to know where exactly but that confirmed it. He reached into his robes, producing a knotty wooden stick tipped with a pulsating red gem. The wand he held now still held enough charge to incinerate anything he pointed it at, if that included his book then so be it, his plan was too close to completion to let his weak memory get in its way.

He slowly went up the stairs, gripping the wand tightly. He jumped up the last few steps, ready to blast whatever intruder was in his bedroom. He realized that nobody was in the room, despite what his scan had said earlier. Was he seeing things? Another look confirmed that if nobody was here now, somebody definitely had been. The painting above his bed had been removed and the safe below… was open?

Perhaps open was not the right word for the safe's state, a hole went straight through the door as if it had been shot by a cannon. As he looked into the hole he saw that his silver dagger was still there but his book was not. His oncoming anger was interrupted by a faint humming coming from his right. As he turned his head, the wall of his bedroom was violently ripped open and he could barely see a blurry shape peeling itself away from the wall, less than a meter to his right and escaping through the newly formed hole.

He jumped off his bed and ran to the hole, trying to make out where the thing had gone. He was tempted to drain the remaining energy in the wand to try and get a lucky shot but then thought better of it.

With a frustrated sigh he walked towards the staircase, as he went down he saw someone sitting on his couch, he readied the wand until he realized that it was the figure. Its pure white clothes stood in an intense contrast to the chaos around it. It didn't turn to look at him.

He asked: "Couldn't you have showed up a few minutes earlier?"

In its usual emotionless tone the figure answered: "Probably. But I hope I don't have to remind you about the nature of my help. I am here only to provide information, conducting the poisoning already strained my terms. If you fail to bring about the change you desire, that is your problem. I can wait another thousand years if I have to."

Any anger he had was gone, the figure was right, it had told him this multiple times. He asked: "So, what now? If that book gets to Bedrock we're finished."

The figure said: "I suggest you act now, with each passing minute it is more likely that your surprise assault will fail."

He nodded. Then conjured up a communication orb, doing so caused his vision to dim for a few seconds, being as low on life force as he was certainly didn't help.

He spoke into the orb: "Execute the plan."

* * *

TehLulz hadn't thought that his heart could beat any faster than what the potion pushed it to, he had been proven wrong when the conspiracy leader came up the stairs. Now TehLulz was again jumping from roof to roof, this time on his way to the second set of coordinates Unchosen had given him. The location was on the complete opposite side of town, he decided to avoid the central plaza and instead go over the houses on the side.

Getting the book from the safe hadn't been difficult, the strength the potion gave him still amazed him, three punches were all it took for the safe door to give in. The book was quite a small thing, it stood to reason that this was a notebook. He had tried to take a peek inside but it turned out that his currently demonic mind also made him unable to comprehend regular language in written form. He'd have to wait to see what was in the book.

He was now drawing close to the location, it seemed to be a warehouse on the edge of Rockhaven, from the outside there was absolutely nothing that set it apart from the others.

His feet hit the artificial bedrock hard as he landed in front of the warehouse. He supposed he needed to open this one up as well. Again, TehLulz entered an enchanting trance but stopped when he noticed that there was a large Eye-and-Claws symbol inside the door. He instead walked up to it and placed his hand on the doorknob.

He heard how the door unlocked itself, then carefully opened it. Inside was a single expansive room, lit up with glowstone lamps behind white stained glass. The room had what looked to be multiple large altars or perhaps morgue slabs evenly distributed throughout. All of them were empty save for one.

On the one occupied slab laid a Mencur-Besh he recognized as Fire. He was lying completely motionless but otherwise looked normal, save for the fact that there were still red stains on his clothes. This did not add up, he knew that Mencur-Besh burned up shortly after death and as it stood Fire was no sagged together pile of scales and bones. All of a sudden this felt very familiar, he had been in a similar position before, back in the swamp, seemingly dead but evidently still alive.

He hurried over to Fire and noticed another thing, next to the slab was a pedestal with a small flask on it, the flask contained a blue potion. Next to the flask was a note, surprisingly he could read what was written on it, it seemed to be written in demonic runes. It instructed him to administer the potion to Fire.

TehLulz thought for a few seconds. Since the location originated from the Mencur-Besh network he probably could trust the note. None other than the Mencur-Besh wrote in demonic runes, apart from demons of course and according to Shadow they would not write them on command.

He picked up the flask, uncorked it and gave what little was in it to Fire.

The reaction was immediate, a twitch went through Fire's body and his eyes opened.

He asked in the demonic tongue: "How many days since the banquet?"

TehLulz replied: "It's the morning of the third day."

Fire asked again: "Have they started the assault yet?"

TehLulz got progressively more confused. "No?"

"Good. Deliver the book to Bedrock as quickly as you can." Fire pulled a note from a pocket. "Give him this as well, he won't understand you otherwise."

TehLulz asked: "Why are you not dead?"

Fire said: "No time to explain, that comes after this is over. We're a bit behind schedule so I need to hurry."

Fire jumped up from the slab and was gone so quickly that even with the potion TehLulz could do nothing but stand there with his mouth open.


	91. Chapter 90

Jack and Nathaniel had spent another two days with Daniel and Lucy, even with Daniel's healing magic it took them a bit to recover from the hypothermia. When they were ready to go they were given another flask of warming potion, just in case. It turned out that this was entirely warranted, only a few days later they were caught in another snowstorm. However, now due to having a flask that would actually open when they needed it to, the only thing they had to worry about was their armor freezing up. It took them another week to make it out of the snow.

The transition between the biomes was as sudden as it had been on the other side. A few hours of walking later they were back on the road. From there on three uneventful days of walking passed. At a fork in the road Jack and Nathaniel said their farewells and went their own ways. Nathaniel took the left road to Rockhaven Port and Jack took the right road to Rockhaven.

Now Jack was in a plains biome, still on the same road. He had just broken camp so it was early in the morning. Rockhaven's black walls towered in the distance. It was a good thing too, Jack's supplies were running low. He calculated that at most in three more days he would have been forced to hunt for food, fortunately it wouldn't come to that. Rockhaven was only an hour away.

As Jack drew closer to the walls, he got a better look at the city, it somehow looked empty from the outside, it was just a big black wall with no discernable point of entry. He did however also notice the slight distortions of light above the city, presumably the magical wards that had prevented the others from entering.

He continued following the road that looked like it went straight into the wall. As he got closer he noticed that there were no guards where the road ended even though Andy said that there were always guards. This was strange.

A moment later it got even stranger. The distortion above the city flickered and then was gone, at the same time a hole opened in the wall. This was beyond suspicious. Either Fire was playing some sick game with him or something serious was happening in the city. If this was bait, Jack decided that it was worth it to take it. He stepped into the city.

The streets were strangely deserted, from what Nathaniel told him they shouldn't have been. There really was something strange going on here.

The street he was on went directly into the center of Rockhaven where a tower stood, on top of that tower floated what could only be described as a huge ender eye. Before he had any more time to wonder what was happening he heard a deep voice shout at him from a side street.

It said: "You there! Mercenary!"

The owner of the voice was a mountain of a man wearing armor that seemed to be made from the same material as the city itself. Jack involuntarily answered: "Yes?"

The man signaled him to come closer and said: "I am Captain Bedrock and with my authority as Royal Guard captain I draft you into whatever this excuse for a civil war is supposed to be. Now that the formalities are done with, follow me!"

Captain Bedrock started running towards the center of the city at a speed that Jack had thought impossible for someone his size wearing his armor. Jack, still more surprised than anything else decided that it was best not to disagree with a man who not only had more combat experience than him but could probably also crush his skull in one hand. He started running as well.

* * *

Carol's living chambers were a mess, ever since the banquet she just hadn't been able to bring herself to tidy up. That was one part of the truth, the other part was that she had been listening. Ever since the banquet the whispers had become more bearable. Maybe bearable was not the right word for it, they were still as painful and mind-numbing as ever but something had changed: Some of the whispers actually started making some amount of sense.

Over the course of the last two days Carol had spent most of her time sitting in a chair and listening for those occasional fragments. She still wasn't able to understand what the whispers were or what they wanted but occasionally images or feelings were conjured up in her mind that she was sure were more than memories, hallucinations or dreams.

Carol's desire for sleep, food or drink had disappeared almost entirely. The longer she listened the more frequent the flashes in her mind became. She had thought about stopping, just finally logging out of the server for a while but after thinking about it, being in her tower was still better.

At the third morning she had carried her chair up to the platform with the eye, which was where she was sitting now.

In a moment where the whispers became quieter and left some room for her own thoughts she thought back to when she had come to the server for the first time. The reason she accepted the invitation was because she didn't have much else left, her thoughts back then were that with a virtual world like this one she could at least live some semblance of a life, and a life it had been, just about two hundred years' worth of life. Carol tried to remember what her exact circumstances were but other than that they were bad she couldn't recall anything. For a few seconds she asked herself if that was worrying, then decided that it was better if she didn't remember.

However there was one thing she did remember in perfect clarity, that being the contract she had to sign to be allowed on the server. It was the only contract she had ever read from start to finish and one particular point was still in her mind.

"Do NOT mess with the eyes!"

She had never understood why that rule was so important, in the beginning she hadn't even know what eyes it was referring to but once she had entered Rockhaven it had become clear.

She stood up from her chair and looked at the eye that floated right in front of her, only one arm's reach away. She had been instructed not to touch the eye under any circumstance, this was probably also an effect of that particular rule. She was content following that rule. Listening was enough, for now.

Suddenly Carol felt something change. The air around her suddenly lost a part of its freshness but also dropped in temperature at the same time. She knew what this meant and fear gripped her heart. The wards above the city were coming down. The fear was pushed away by a sense of purpose, this was where her duty as tower keeper came in. Even if the archmage or even the king fell, she had to defend the eye at all costs… That was what they said, right?

Carol rapidly descended the winding staircase. There was a cupboard that she thought she would never have to open. Inside were an ornamented crossbow and a quiver full of silver bolts. No matter who tried to storm the tower, this would stop them.

The whispers slowly increased in intensity again so Carol tried her best to make it up the stairs. Once she arrived at the top she assumed position above the staircase. Not a second later it happened. She heard noises coming from her front door. Nobody would take the eye from her.


	92. Chapter 91

Fire's limbs were still stiffer than he would have liked, but after waking up from a potion-induced sleep that was to be expected. While he was running he reconnected to the Mencur-Besh network and was met with a flood of information.

It seemed that just a few minutes ago an assault on the Mage Guild had started, roughly fifty people armed with crossbows and silver bolts had quickly taken most of the guild by force. From what he heard Emilia Spellblade was still holding out but it seemed that that wouldn't last. It would probably only be a matter of minutes until the wards fell and the front gate opened. So far this was within the acceptable limits, however there was something else that was a much bigger danger than the revolution. Even with the weapons and magical advantage the rebels had, the Royal Guard would have no problem containing them, especially with Bedrock's immunity to magic. That was, if they weren't stopped earlier.

Fire had to reach the central tower as quickly as possible, ideally before the rebels start spreading out. Shadow had informed him of a critical flaw in the eye of the tower, he needed to be there to protect it. It was a wonder that nobody had noticed it earlier. The fact that the flaw was there had suddenly turned a watertight plan into a potentially unfavorable gamble.

As Fire arrived at Carol's door, the inevitable happened, the wards went down. He didn't pay much mind to it, this was expected. Fire knocked on the door, he didn't get an answer. Carol was home, he knew that much from the information from the network. Why wasn't she answering the door?

Fire decided to not put anything at risk by waiting and instead entered an enchanting trance. He knew the enchantments in the artificial bedrock well, in part because he had had a hand in their creation. After he invoked the enchantment, the lock of the door clicked and the door swung open.

The inside of the tower was completely messy, this was unusual. Every time he had been here before it seemed like Carol placed high importance on keeping everything clean. Carol herself was nowhere to be seen.

Fire slowly went up the winding stairs, he took quick looks into the storage room and bedroom floors, with the same results. This was bad, if Carol was in the tower but not on the lower floors…

Fire started sprinting up the stairs after realizing the implications. As he reached the top he suddenly heard something behind him. It took him longer than usual to react, his recent sleep was probably to blame. As he looked over his shoulder he realized that the source of the sound had been Carol firing a crossbow bolt at him. The world around him slowed down. Under normal circumstances he probably could have dodged or even caught the bolt but his delay in noticing it had cost him valuable time.

The bolt impacted the side of Fire's abdomen and as it sunk into his flesh a burning sensation surged from the wound outwards through his entire body. This was no surprise to him, he knew that the tower keeper had silver bolts to defend the tower with. When the burning reached his head, the world around him returned to normal speed. His momentum flung him up the remaining steps, against the low wall that served as a railing.

Carol screamed. She probably hadn't expected him to be the one coming up the stairs, especially since according to her knowledge he was dead.

With every passing second it got harder to move, Fire did his best to assume a somewhat upright position. Even while this close to the eye, his connection to the network had become weak and full of static thanks to the silver. It seemed that the rebels were getting ready to assault the rest of the city with their newfound magical superiority.

Carol said nothing, she just blankly stared at Fire. She then walked over to a chair she apparently had placed there and sat back down. At this point Fire knew what was happening, this was the worst case and he could do nothing to stop it. If Carol touched the eye her spell would directly connect her to the network, there was no telling what would happen then. The gamble was rapidly turning into a losing game.

A few seconds later Carol seemed to remember that she had just shot someone. She slowly got up and looked at Fire.

"Are you okay?" She slowly asked.

Before Fire had an opportunity to answer, Carol looked at the eye and very slowly extended a hand towards it.

Speaking was difficult but Fire said: "Whatever you do, don't touch the eye. It'll kill you, if not worse."

Carol didn't react and continued her motion. Fire said: "If you do this it is a danger to the entire server."

That stopped her.

She said. "I just want to listen."

Fire heard noises at the bottom of the staircase, heavy steps going up, then another set of lighter steps. The sounds of a set of plate armor, the rattles of chain links.

Carol remained frozen in her position, one hand mere centimeters away from touching the eye. A few moments later a bulky figure came up the stairs, without a doubt Captain Bedrock. He was followed by someone else who had the look of a mercenary. His hair was obscured by his chain hood, from his pale, beardless face two grey eyes looked directly at Fire.

Bedrock bellowed: "Tower keeper! Do not touch the eye! That is an order!"

Carol remained frozen for a few more seconds, then slowly repeated her previous statement: "I just want to listen."

This was all the proof Fire needed, the gamble was lost, now it was time for damage control. With what little strength he had remaining he gripped the bolt stuck in his abdomen and pulled on it. After a few seconds it was out, he then rammed it into his other side. Another burning wave rolled through him, this time his connection to the network was severed entirely.

This was no second too early. Carol leaned towards the eye and closed the gap, Bedrock was too far away to react. As Carol's palm touched the eye, a stream of energy shot up her hand and through her body. Her mouth opened and let out a scream that was somewhere between human and demonic. Carol's hand was suddenly pulled below the surface of the eye, the rest of her body quickly followed but her scream kept going until a few seconds after she had completely vanished.

Bedrock balled his fist in anger. "We were too late."

Fire slowly replied: "So was I. What little there was left of Carol is gone now. On a positive note, we are still alive, this could have ended very differently."

The mercenary said: "I don't think I'll ever understand or forget what I just saw.

Bedrock asked: "How badly are you hurt, Fire?"

Fire weakly pointed to the silver bolt. "As hurt as you would expect from this. I'll live for long enough, you're needed out there."

Bedrock nodded and silently went back down the stairs, with a look he wordlessly commanded the mercenary to stay. The mercenary seemed lost, more lost than you would expect of someone in the center of an unknown city.

Once Bedrock was out of earshot Fire said: "So… You found me. What are you going to do, Jack?"

Jack sighed. "Of course you would know my name."

Fire tried his best to shift into a position that was a little more comfortable but remained silent.

Jack asked: "What was that… just now?"

Fire said: "That's what happens when you feed the human brain signals it wasn't exactly designed to handle. It changes to be able to accept those signals but sacrifices many other things, personality being one of them. When she touched the eye her mind was absorbed into the network."

Jack asked: "But the admins surely have some sort of safety built in, right?"

So this really was the right hand man of the hacker who had taken an entire server hostage. When Fire had first read Jack's profile he hadn't seemed like the type to blackmail people with hostages. The fact that he was right in front of him was proof that if one thing he was tenacious. But he was right, there was supposed to be a whole suite of safety mechanisms. Unless… maybe there was hope for him after all.

Fire ignored Jack's question and asked: "So, why would you try to hunt me down?"

Jack said: "You're assembling some kind of backdoor, right?"

"Correct. And there is nothing you can do in here to stop me. The moment I reached my base was when you lost all hope of doing that."

Jack said: "How can you be so sure about that? I could just kill you right now and you'd be set back many days."

Fire said: "I would refrain from doing that while you are connected directly. Hindering my mission might provoke the enforcer."

"How is that relevant?" Jack took a step back.

Fire pointed behind himself. "Why don't you look over the railing and find out?"


	93. Chapter 92

The Mage Guild had fallen, Emilia was dead or at least unable to cast and they were making their way back out through the entrance hall. The featureless golem that normally handed out maps stood by the gate motionlessly, it wasn't designed for combat and posed no threat.

They had taken losses as well, about a third of their members had fallen but they still had enough left, some still in the guild, others spread throughout the city waiting for his command. The figure was walking next to him, as emotionless as ever.

It asked: "What will you do next? Do you have a plan on how to defeat the guard? What about Bedrock?"

He indeed had a plan, one that up until now he had told nobody, not even the figure. He said: "I'll need access to the eye, from there on we'll use the Mencur-Besh against the guard."

The figure stopped. "Are you aware that you are breaking the rules?"

He nodded. "So what?"

The figure asked: "Are you aware of the punishment for breaking the rules?"

Something definitely was off. "I only ever heard scare-tales of an enforcer."

"If those tales were true, would you still go through with your plan?" The figure was different now, this was more than a question, this was a threat.

He thought for a few seconds. Around them were multiple capable mages who were all armed with crossbows with silver bolts. He really didn't need the figure anymore.

In its usual emotionless tone the figure said: "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The moment he shouted the command was when it happened. Rockhaven folded in on him, the buildings around him got taller and taller, the sky darkened and the entire world seemed to collapse. Before he knew it he was standing in an endless black void. The only other thing he saw were the pure white clothes of the figure.

Then those clothes peeled away, fading into the endless darkness, revealing the figure's body. The figure's skin wasn't just black, its body was like a rupture in the darkness, filled with something even darker. Its white hair had taken the form of a blindingly bright fog that floated around its head, the individual strands slowly moving about. In the midst of its face glowed its eyes with what he could only describe as infinite malignity. The figure was… Shadow Wardbreaker? This was not the Shadow he had seen at the banquet, this Shadow was clearly different.

Her voice seemed to be directly inside of his head, it was multilayered and uncomfortably loud. "I gave you multiple chances to stop, chances to realize that your plan was flawed from the start, fated to be crushed. And what did you do? You decided to cheat, you decided that instead of accepting defeat you should endanger everyone here!"

"You set me up!" He cried.

Shadow chuckled. "No, you did that all by yourself, I only gave you the tools to set your plan in motion. As I said, if you hadn't chosen to break the rules a false death would have been your worst punishment."

"But it's just a game!"

Shadow's form suddenly swooped in and only stopped right in front of his face, her voice got even louder. "Breaking the rules you agreed to as a condition to be allowed on the server is not a game. Those rules are there for a reason, that reason is the safety of everyone participating in the experiment, you knew this as well. You read the contract, you read the rules, you read the punishments and you agreed."

"What do the eyes do anyways?"

"The eyes are a vital part of another experiment that's running on the server, can you guess what the name of that experiment is?"

He was beginning to realize but he refused to answer, he was not about to be intimidated by a virtual threat.

Shadow seemed to have understood the reason behind his silence. She shouted: "Mencur-Besh! An advanced artificial intelligence capable of logic, spread across multiple bodies. The experiment is how they live and develop alongside humans in the long term and humans like you keep reminding me why we needed that experiment in the first place!"

Wait. Did she just refer to humans in second person? Was she an AI as well?

Shadow moved back again. She said: "No, I'm not an AI. I was human once. Now… I'm something a bit different."

"You can read my mind!" He blurted out in surprise.

Shadow laughed. "That and much more. If you haven't figured it out by now, I am the enforcer you believed was just a myth. If you behave I'll let you off with a ban and a mind wipe. Diversity in personalities is important for the experiment but we can't have anyone endangering lives."

That wasn't right. "The Mencur-Besh aren't alive!"

Shadow sighed. "I won't get into a philosophical discussion about whether Mencur-Besh dream of scaled sheep or not. That's not what I'm here for. Now tell me, do you have anything written down in the real world that would remind you of the server? Because that's another broken rule. Don't make me search for the answers myself, you wouldn't like that."

This was bad. In the beginning he had just taken a small note to test if they would enforce that rule, nothing had come of it. By now his entire apartment was filled with notes about everything, including his plans.

Shadow feigned surprise. "Uh-oh. Do you also know the penalty for attempted mind wipe evasion?"

He indeed knew what the contract said, he had always assumed that specific rule to be unenforceable by law. A private group couldn't just inflict a death penalty on anyone, right?

Shadow snapped: "Don't start a morality lecture. We made the rules and have the power to enforce them. Do you know what your interference with the eye could have done? It could have killed everyone in Rockhaven and I'm not talking about fake death, they would have died in the real world. I can't take that chance. Normally I would really just have let you off with a ban, followed by a personal visit, some 'house cleaning' and a mind wipe. But as you might know, we have a hacker problem right now and I can't leave the server because of that."

"So you're just going to kill me?"

"Please, you knew this was coming. You thought about it when we talked beneath the city, back then you didn't seem deterred by the prospect."

So she could just read anyone's mind at any time? Who thought that was a good idea?

Shadow said: "No, I can only use this power when dealing with rule breakers. But if someone gives me such an inviting channel into their mind, I can hardly refuse. Here's a tip for you, don't try to read the mind of the person who's making your plan possible."

He thought back on her previous statement. She was right, he had considered the punishment of death a real possibility and yet he still decided to go through with is plan. Why? Was he so bored with his life after those thousands of simulated years? Now that he thought back, how could he have been so stupid? Maybe he really did deserve this.

"Now's a little late for self-pity." Shadow remarked.

He said: "It's sad really, now that I know this much I can't really go back."

He expected Shadow to reply but nothing came. He supposed this was his chance to reflect on his choices. A deep regret filled him, now that his head was on the figurative chopping block everything suddenly seemed a lot clearer. The longer he thought the more he was appalled by himself, that he completely disregarded the possible dangers. He could have killed thousands.

Shadow spoke again, this time surprisingly softly. "It's amazing how quickly a mind can change. A few minutes ago every possible outcome of you living would have resulted in revenge. Now though… I am only required by the rules to execute unrepentant rule breakers, you don't fit that description anymore. I could theoretically put you in a coma and hope that this situation blows over within a few days. I'd still have to wipe your mind though."

"No."

Shadow asked: "What?"

He said with a shaking voice: "I want you to kill me. If you erase all the years I spent on the server I'd just go back to being who I was back then. Whoever that was… But I know that the me back then eventually became the me that might have accidentally killed thousands out of boredom. While I have this clarity, I need to put an end to this. If I really am this bored, it should end now."

Shadow asked: "Are you sure about this? Being killed by me here is anything but pleasant."

He was confused for a second. "Wait, here? I thought you just have a death squad at the ready. You can kill people through the server?"

"Yes, I'm a bit of an anomaly in that. You couldn't know, it wasn't mentioned in the contract. To kill you I connect my mind to yours. My mind overwhelms yours, your personality is obliterated and I take your memories."

He asked: "You… eat minds? What are you?"

Shadow said: "Something way beyond your understanding, I was occasionally referred to as a god by some. Up until not too long ago I would have disagreed. Now I'm not too sure anymore. After consuming the other one I have yet to see what I will become. You can decide for yourself how much of what I said is the truth."

Mind eating? Gods? God eating? Truth? What was even real anymore? Had his life been real? Was he just now waking up and experiencing the harsh reality? He had only just accepted that his life would end but Shadow's words put an entirely new feeling of existential dread into his mind. He suddenly understood how people in cosmic horror stories could so easily lose their minds.

This was too much all at once, this was wrong. "Just end it already, I just don't want to anymore."

"If that is your choice." Shadow said, then slowly extended her hand until it came to rest on his forehead. He could feel the cold darkness reach out to his mind.

Then he heard the last word he would ever hear: "Goodbye."

Once again, the world collapsed. This time it turned grey, every sense was grey, sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Every sense was just an unchanging grey static. Then the grey slowly started to vary, individual sensations split off but they went to all the wrong senses. Was this what she meant by his mind being overwhelmed?

That was his last coherent thought before his mind shattered under a sudden onslaught of sensations and information. He was no more. Now only Shadow stood on the central square in front of the Mage Guild, her palm still on his forehead, her body still a tear in reality, her hair still a white mist, her eyes still distant red stars.

Now that there was light, she cast a shadow as well but that shadow looked nothing like her, it was a writhing mass of silhouettes, occasionally features would manifest, arms, legs, tentacles, only to disappear moments later.

After a second the empty shell in front of her collapsed onto the floor and several crossbow bolts flew at her. Instead of impacting, they simply disappeared into the vast nothingness.

Shadow said: "Settle down citizens, your revolution has failed."

She then looked up at the tower, where she could see a terrified visage framed in chainmail. A smile crept up on her face.


	94. Chapter 93

Fire didn't need to look over the railing to know what had happened, not that he had any choice in the matter, he was largely unable to move. He had seen Shadow execute rule breakers exactly twice before, however there had been more executions outside of that. To an outside observer her executions looked instant, the moment her palm touched the rule breaker's head was also the moment where she turned into something closer to her true self, in appearance that was, Shadow was never one to hide her personality behind a mask.

Jack stumbled back from the railing, terror still on his face. Fire imagined that seeing two minds get destroyed within less than five minutes had taken a toll on him. Fire might have even felt pity, had he been able to.

Jack asked: "What the hell?"

"That" Fire paused for emphasis "is what happens when you break the rules in every possible way. Understand now? The enforcer is travelling with me."

Jack said: "I understand that, but what exactly is she?"

Fire did his best to shrug. "I don't think even she knows that exactly."

At this point it was clear that Jack was overwhelmed by everything he had seen and heard. He turned Carol's chair around and slumped down in it.

Fire repeated his initial question to Jack: "So, what are you going to do?"

No reply from Jack.

Fire sighed and thought about his own situation. He was currently dying, for real this time. The silver had set off a chain reaction in his body that would kill him within the next half hour, removing the bolt wouldn't stop it. The only thing that would was a special healing potion. He had no doubts that they stocked them in Rockhaven since it had other uses as well, the question was if someone was going to bring it to him in time. Even if he died it wouldn't make much of a difference either way, the Axe was theirs and the lockdown would be lifted soon. Of course, he was also dying in the real world. How dead he was exactly was another question, one he had no way to answer from inside the server.

Jack finally said something. "I guess I'll report what I saw. Can't do anything else really, can't kill you, can't stop you."

Fire asked: "Report to whom? Q? Alice?"

Jack said: "At this point I'm not even surprised you know her name as well. No reason to lie to you since you probably know more about us than we do. Yeah, to them."

Fire chuckled. "You're giving me too much credit. Beyond names, addresses and general profiles my knowledge is limited. Still more than enough to get you into jail once I'm out of here."

"Not gonna have her shatter our minds? Generous." Jack remarked.

Fire replied: "I'm sure Shadow would if she was the one making the judgement. But no, that fate is only reserved for those so stupid and ignorant that it borders on being suicidal. I know that you specifically are none of those three since you haven't killed me." Fire paused to take a breath, which was becoming increasingly difficult. "Besides, you haven't actually killed anyone out there yet."

Jack nodded. "True enough." He followed up with a question: "Purely out of interest, how did you know I was coming?"

Fire said: "Those two people who sheltered you in the cold biome, they work for us, for the Mencur-Besh. You were quite lucky to come across one of our safe houses. Lucy and I, we have history. Let's say this isn't the first time she's assisted me in a high-stakes battle against the odds."

Another long pause followed.

Fire broke the silence this time: "So, what does Q actually want to do with the software once he has it? He really must want it if it's worth killing people over."

Jack asked: "I thought you knew that already?"

Fire said: "I know what I know, but what do you know?"

Jack seemed taken aback but quickly composed himself. "From what he said, mostly sell it to the highest bidder."

"Funny, that's what I heard him say as well. But if you get the opportunity, you might want to ask him again. Now that the stakes have changed, his answer may change as well."

Jack seemed to think on what Fire said but didn't get a chance to reply, he was interrupted by heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. It was Captain Bedrock without a doubt.

When he reached the top of the stairs, Fire saw that he was holding a potion flask in his hand. Bedrock immediately walked over to him and knelt down. First he removed the bolt from Fire's self-inflicted wound and then gave him the potion to drink. The effect was immediate, the burning all over Fire's body slowly faded and he was faintly able to feel the network again. Quite shakily, Fire got up.

"Thanks Bedrock." He said.

Bedrock replied: "I can't let a former Guard captain die just like that."

Fire asked: "How did you know it was this specific potion I needed?"

Bedrock said: "I suppose it's been long enough, I have no reason to doubt the Mencur-Besh anymore after this."

With those words Bedrock reached up to his head and took off his helmet. Underneath was a bald head with white eyebrows and the hardened face of a warrior. This would be unremarkable, even expected, if his skin hadn't been covered in black, pulsating runes.

Bedrock introduced himself: "Ascension project, subject 93. Now known as Captain Bedrock."

Fire said: "I never expected to run into you again after all those years, you completely vanished after the ritual."

Bedrock explained: "After the ritual I suddenly heard things in my head that weren't my own thoughts, I ran as far away as I could. I ran until it was just me and my thoughts again. I lived far from anything else for a long time, did a lot of thinking and an equal amount of fighting. I found myself returning closer to civilization from time to time, always wary of the voices. With each encounter I began to understand more and more. Once I had fully accepted them, I decided to go where they were strongest. To Rockhaven."

This was interesting, if what he said was true this proved that a slow acclimatization to the Mencur-Besh network was possible without loss of identity. This was useful.

Fire asked: "About your armor, how did you make it?"

Bedrock replied: "With the understanding came skills, I woke up one morning and knew how to shape artificial bedrock, at least while it was in direct contact with me." He paused. "As for why I didn't reveal myself earlier, I didn't trust the Mencur-Besh enough. You had been clear enough on why you needed me for the ritual but after what it did to me I needed to be sure about your true intentions. In this world people often leave things unsaid. I am glad that the Mencur-Besh are different in that regard."

Jack asked: "I don't want to interrupt but what is this ascension project you were a part of?"

Fire said: "In short, its goal was to create Shadow."

Jack shook his head. "I don't think I want to know more than that."

Fire turned to Bedrock and asked: "So, what are the damages? My connection to the network is still weak."

Bedrock said: "No casualties outside of the Mage Guild. Currently counting around fifty dead and three times that many injured. Emilia is badly wounded but she's being treated right now. Most other higher-ups in the guild were either unharmed or part of the conspiracy. We're in the process of rounding them up, that book your friend delivered to me will be very useful in that. I expect that we can lift the lockdown by tomorrow. I also hear Shadow will help getting the wards back up."

Fire nodded. Everything was within expected parameters.

Bedrock went down the stairs first, followed by Fire and then Jack. Bedrock put his helmet back on before they exited the tower. Then the three of them went separate ways. Bedrock towards the Guard's building. Fire went towards the Alchemist Guild where his friends were. Jack remained on the main square, probably unsure what to do and still processing his experiences. Fire would probably run into him again shortly, that much was to be expected.

One thing was for sure, Fire had a lot of explaining ahead of him, both to his friends and to Shadow. This was, of course, also expected.


	95. Chapter 94

Fire soon found his friends in the Alchemist Guild. They were located in the lab of one Egis Degons, an Eye-and-Claws alchemist who had no small part in the discovery of the leader of the conspiracy. As a whole they looked fairly battered. freeZe was starting to properly recover from her wounds but was still in pain when she tried moving too much. Unchosen was only barely awake, having insisted to wait for Fire's return after spending a night brewing. Fire wasn't off that well either, it would take several days for him to be back in good condition. TehLulz had it the worst, the potion had worn off and he was now feeling the aftermath, it was unclear for how long it would last.

Fire advised his friends to get some rest before their departure, they gladly agreed and made their way over to Shadow's house, leaving Fire at the guild with Egis and Undira. He would have liked to lie down as well but he had a couple of things to take care of.

"Hello again Undira." Fire said.

Undira replied. "Hey Fire. I'm glad you're not… dead."

Fire nodded. "Give me your hand. I need to finalize your mark."

Undira eagerly extended her right hand. Fire took it with his own, then hovered his left index finger above the unfinished mark. It took a few seconds to gather the energy for the process, the silver's influence on Fire still had not gone away entirely. Undira flinched as the claw scratches appeared beneath the eye and finalized the mark.

Fire said: "Egis, I need your hand as well."

"Of course." Egis said.

What Fire did now was a little more complicated. Finalizing a mark was one thing, raising a mark's position in the hierarchy was another. Of course the only thing that made it difficult was, again, the silver. After Fire was done with Egis' mark he stepped back.

"You two now possess the highest rank within the Eye-and-Claws." He looked to Undira. "It is not standard procedure to immediately grant the highest ranking mark to new recruits but you have more than proven that you are suitable for the position, especially since you know what I really am."

"Thank you." Undira said.

Fire continued: "Both of you are formally invited to Drandin, your skills are very welcome there."

Egis spoke first: "I am honored. Now that my longest standing research project is finished, a change of scenery would be welcome."

Undira said to Egis: "Just let me know when you're leaving, it would be nice to not have to travel alone." She turned to Fire. "Fire, you aren't going directly to Drandin, with that hacker situation and everything, right?"

Fire nodded. "Correct. As nice as it would be to stay and talk to you, I need to meet back up with Shadow. There is an Axe to be collected."

* * *

After leaving the Alchemist Guild, Fire's next destination was the royal palace. Shadow was waiting for him outside the gate, still far from her usual appearance.

As Fire approached her he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulders and pressure on his back and chest. A look to the ground confirmed his suspicions.

He said: "Wodahs, I know you're glad that I'm back but no sudden shadow hugs please."

Shadow chuckled. "Sorry, she gets a lot more confident when we're in this unbound form."

The writhing mass of shadows on the ground retreated from Fire and returned to her owner, doing her best to conform to a believable shape. Only a few seconds later Wodahs gave up and went back to being a writhing mass of shadows.

They entered the palace together and proceeded through the entrance hall, towards the throne room. Everyone immediately made room for them.

Shadow turned to Fire and said: "Jack will probably follow us after we leave. Any plans for that?"

Fire replied: "He knows that attacking us is a bad idea, I am fairly certain that he will do nothing to get in our way. I don't know whether this applies to the other hackers though, so best be on your guard, the rest of us are quite defenseless in our current state."

Their conversation came to a halt, they had reached the throne room. The throne room was mostly made from artificial bedrock, the decorative quartz pillars on the sides stood in an intense contrast to the otherwise dark room. A masterfully woven red carpet extended all the way from the door to the throne. The throne had a simple, yet imposing angular design. On the throne sat Hadrin Lichslayer of Rockhaven, to his left stood Captain Bedrock, no one else was in the room.

Fire and Shadow stood before Hadrin and bowed, he said: "You may rise. Thank you for both of your assistance in defending Rockhaven, my decision to give the Axe into your custody was without a doubt the correct one." He nodded to the side. "Bedrock, the Axe."

Bedrock reached behind the throne and presented the Axe of Eric the Viking. It was an ornate two-headed battleaxe made from a black metal with elaborate golden decorations all over, the blades seamlessly transitioned into the handle. One might believe that the black metal was firesteel but on closer inspection it looked somehow different. In truth, the Axe was not made of any known material, as a component of the Ban Hammer it was unique and refused analysis.

Fire reached out and carefully took the Axe from Bedrock's hands. An immense but undirected feeling of power radiated from the Axe into Fire's palms, this truly was a powerful weapon.

"We thank you." He said.

With a nod Hadrin said: "Take good care of it, my friends."

Fire and Shadow turned around and left. The people in the entrance hall gave them even more space now that Fire was holding the very thing that had been the symbol of Rockhaven for thousands of years.

After leaving the palace they slowly walked through the streets towards Shadow's house.

Shadow asked: "Do you think Jack still believes that they can succeed somehow? Does he have any doubts?"

Fire thought for a moment. "He seemed quite convinced when I talked to him. It might change after he reports back to Q, it might not. I don't know enough about him to reliably judge him. If we act correctly we may be able to sway the outcome."

Shadow unlocked the door to her house. "Perhaps. But in case something does go very wrong… The restrains placed upon me are wearing thin, though I would hate to betray the trust of the scientists after all they did for us."

Fire said nothing. In secret he had suspected as much, you could only contain his sister's ever-growing power for so long. Sarah, Anna and Harald knew this too, maybe they even feared Shadow. Fire had no reason to fear her, he knew that he would be the one person she would never turn against.

Shadow seemed to guess what Fire was thinking. "They really did create an abomination when they made me, a real monster, but perhaps that's what it takes."

Fire nodded. "Perhaps."


	96. Chapter 95

The day was slowly reaching its end, at least that's what Phoebe's watch told her, the lab completely lacked windows so she couldn't rely on the sun for telling time. Most people would find this somewhat unsettling but Phoebe was used to it, after all she had spent a great deal of her working life in a windowless room.

Phoebe sat at her laptop and condensed what information they had on the hackers. While she did have a respectable amount, none of it held any clues to the hackers' identities. The most promising piece of evidence was a file containing a recording of incoming and outgoing internet traffic at a nearby server node. From what she was able to gather, the hacker that had launched the attack was somewhere in the vague vicinity of the city, which was not helpful in the least. There were just too many people to search with her organization's limited resources, contacting the public authorities was out of the question as well, with all the red tape involved the people on the server would be dead before even the preparations for a search started. What was strange was how there had been absolutely no reports of catatonic people in front of their computers, at least some of the newly captured victims had to have family or roommates. This meant that the hackers either had some friends in high places, total control over the emergency system or a way to imprison those other people too. None of those possibilities sounded pleasant.

It was frustrating that after almost three whole days they didn't even have any idea who had launched the attack in the first place. Phoebe had called up her contacts in every hacker group she knew but none of them claimed to have any relevant operation running. She believed them, the groups she kept in contact with weren't ones to suddenly change to blackmail and hostage taking. At least it told her that whoever started this attack had a clean record, however this didn't mean that they hadn't hired some help. All in all, their investigation had ground to a standstill.

Phoebe sighed and stood up, then looked around the room. A guard stood by the door. Gerald was still over at the workstation, this time accompanied by Sarah. Hannah had told her that she was taking a nap in the common room. Harald was nowhere to be seen. Only Anna seemed relatively unoccupied so she was who Phoebe decided to report to.

"Hey Anna." She said.

Anna turned around. "What is it Phoebe?"

"It is as you said, those hackers really know what they are doing. None of the stuff I have got me any closer to finding where they are, only that the attacks come from a relatively nearby place."

Anna said: "Even if we don't find anything, there is still hope left. I think I mentioned a backdoor to you during our meeting in the device Gerald built."

Phoebe nodded. "Yeah, you did. Something about artefacts?"

"Exactly, there are a number of unique artefacts scattered around the server's world. A few of them can be gathered and assembled to form the Ban Hammer, it's what gives universal control over the server. There are only two people who can use it, Peter and Shadow. However due to the destructive nature of Shadow's mind, it probably would be a better idea if Peter was the one who used it. If I'm being honest, we never tested it, it only exists in theory."

Phoebe asked: "So, Peter is currently in the server trying to gather those things? How many are there?"

Anna put her palm to the back of her neck. "See, that's the problem. There are three hardcoded components, one of which is already in Peter's possession. Anything beyond that is decided by the storyteller."

"And who's that?" Phoebe asked.

Anna explained: "It's the system that controls the server on a larger scale. While it is intelligent, it is too narrow to be considered alive. We created it to make the server an interesting and diverse experience, its goal is to create difficult but manageable challenges for the server's inhabitants. Those can by anything from incredibly hostile environments to natural disasters. It is also what decides which other artefacts are used in the creation of the Ban Hammer. We thought of this as a security mechanism, even if one of us were to tell anyone the first three artefacts, we can't know anything beyond that. How exactly the additional artefacts are revealed is also up to the storyteller."

"That makes some amount of sense. But do you think Peter has enough time to gather those artefacts?"

Anna sighed. "I don't know, from the diagnostics readouts we can see that the simulation speed was significantly slowed down due to the attack. Theoretically we could disengage the security protocols to push it back up but…" She hesitated. "You know, I think at this point we should do that. If we wait much longer the hostages will probably die either way. We should gather everyone, I can't make this decision alone."

* * *

After a surprisingly short gathering they had decided that even with the involved risks, disengaging the security mechanisms was the best course of action. Sarah guided everyone to the big cube in the center of the lab.

Gerald asked: "So, what do those security mechanisms do anyways? I saw some of them, from what I could tell they mostly double-check each data transfer."

Sarah opened the door on the side of the cube. "That is mostly what they do. Even when they are disengaged the server should run as it would normally, provided nobody goes against the rules. They are there to detect anomalous transmissions, if one is found it is prevented and reported. Sadly this takes a lot of processing power since every transmission needs to be run through multiple filters."

Gerald asked another question: "How are you going to turn those off by the way? I thought you had no control over the server."

Sarah replied: "It's a hardware switch. Sadly once they are disengaged a restart is required to re-engage them and that would kill the hostages."

Phoebe was directly behind Gerald. The inside of the cube was expectedly cramped but surprisingly cold, not something she had expected from the inside of a supercomputer. In the middle there was a terminal which showed several diagnostic readouts. Most of them were in the green but one of them was decidedly red, namely the simulation speed. Below the terminal was a big switch behind a glass panel.

Sarah pointed to the terminal. "Currently running at a ratio of one to sixty, that's the absolute lowest we ever had if you disregard the early testing phase."

She took a deep breath as she flipped the glass panel aside and rested her hand on the switch. After a few seconds of hesitation she yanked the switch downwards. For a few seconds nothing happened, nothing changed, not the gentle humming of the server, not the numbers on the terminal. Then suddenly the simulation speed ratio started rapidly rising, its color changing from red to orange to yellow to green as it climbed higher. Once it broke quadruple digits it started slowing down, the numbers were now displayed in blue."

Gerald asked: "What does blue mean?"

Sarah replied: "It means it's faster than it should be with the current amount of expected load. Again, as long as nothing unusual happens in the server this is absolutely fine. It'll probably take a bit to stabilize. Hopefully this gives Peter the time he needs."

They then went over to Gerald's device again to discuss further steps, they came to the conclusion that they should still keep digging, if they could find the hackers on their own it certainly would be safer than relying on an untested backdoor.

After she disengaged from the shared mind Phoebe felt surprisingly refreshed, she immediately went back to her laptop and continued searching for any connections she could find.

* * *

It was getting close to midnight when Phoebe decided to stop, everyone else had already gone to sleep, save for Gerald. She suspected that he was taking some of his old meds to stay awake as he had often done when they were working on a particularly interesting project.

Just as she stood up Gerald called her over. He didn't sound very confident. "Hey Phoebe, I found something weird."

Phoebe slowly walked over to him, then tilted her head to signal him to keep talking.

Gerald said: "So… after we disconnected I noticed something weird. I didn't want to say anything, I needed to dig around their code some more to verify."

"What did you find?"

Gerald stood up from his chair. "That's the thing, nothing. I found nothing that could explain what I saw. It's best if I show you."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass marble, which he placed on a table across the room. He then went over to his device and placed his right hand on the metal ball. Phoebe was getting confused, why was he connecting to the shared mind? What did the marble have to do with this?

Before she had a chance to walk over and ask him inside the shared mind, Gerald had disconnected again. He looked over to her, then pointed his finger towards the marble on the table, further increasing Phoebe's confusion.

"Boop." Gerald said and made a pushing motion.

To Phoebe's complete surprise the marble was launched off the table with a force that couldn't be explained with a sudden gust of wind or a very, very localized earthquake.

"What was that?" Phoebe asked in bewilderment.

Gerald threw his hands in the air. "Exactly!"

Before Phoebe had an opportunity to ask more questions Gerald had already connected to the shared mind again, only to disconnect a second after. This time as he made a pulling motion, the marble came rolling towards him until he stopped it with his foot.

"Magic!" He exclaimed. "That's got to be the only explanation."

Phoebe said: "I get everything I saw up until now but this is completely insane."

Gerald said: "Exactly what I thought. I did find something out while digging through their code though. I originally skipped the biological interface because that's not my field but when I looked at it again it doesn't make sense at all. Nothing indicates that this software should ever be able to connect to a brain. I suppose that's what they meant when they said they are making use of a phenomenon they don't quite understand."

Phoebe shook her head. "Just completely insane."

Gerald said: "Whatever this is, we need to ask them about it tomorrow. I have had enough of whatever this unscientific and yet very real thing is. Then again, you know what they say about technology and magic…"

A silence fell over both of them. Phoebe tired her best not to contemplate the implications of whatever this was, not until tomorrow when she could get actual answers.

Suddenly something happened that made her task a lot easier, out of nowhere the intercom at the door had started ringing. None of the proximity alarms had been tripped. Still, this was refreshingly less strange than whatever she had just witnessed. She exchanged a quick glance with Gerald and then walked over to the intercom.

She did not know the voice on the other end but its tone definitely put her on high alert. "You need to listen to me, you are in danger!"


	97. Chapter 96

There are many things people talk about casually, other things that they talk about seriously, however there are also things that are not talked about at all. A fairly recent war, won through means most would consider unethical would certainly fall into that third category.

Of course I can only speak for this world, and as you might have noticed, it is a bit different from yours but I think at least in this regard there are certain similarities. I would have preferred not to rudely interrupt my own storytelling and address you directly but that would have required me to make people say things they wouldn't say. Instead I have to tell you directly what happened in this world roughly thirty-five years ago.

At some point in the past, multiple countries started a war, why is not relevant, just pick any of the common justifications for war and you'd be as close to the truth as any historian. It must have been a very good justification though, since not before long the entire planet was up in arms. This war went through the usual things that a well-justified war goes through and just one year after it started, two sides had formed. At that point the more powerful of the sides would have predictably crushed the weaker side and won the war. However, it did not play out that way.

There were two reasons for this, their names were Aaron Graves and Lilith Graves, a happily married couple that also happened to be the world's leading developers and sellers of weapons of all kinds. Unfortunately for the stronger side, they chose to exclusively supply the weaker side, because what it lacked in fighting strength, it had in money and desperation.

It was their involvement that evened out the power balance, at first. Then, two more years into the war, the scales tipped in the favor of the formerly-weaker side. It was when Aaron and Lilith developed a new combat agent, colorfully dubbed "Fairy Dust", which no existing technology could protect against and caused death in a variety of disturbing, yet fascinating ways.

The Graves family had been important figures in the war before this event but after it they had become synonymous with it, or rather with the destruction that was now being unleashed on the opposing side. Speaking of the Graves family, it was also around this time when it gained an additional member in the form a suspiciously quiet newborn girl. Back then nobody knew that the parents' lives were on a short clock due to exposure of early versions of Fairy Dust.

It took another two years and the near-complete destruction of the now-weaker side to officially attain victory. This victory also marked the day when the Graves family grew yet again, or would have grown had Aaron not succumbed to the late effects of his own weapon and had Lilith not died in childbirth for the same reason.

The end of the war left the few parts of the world that were still intact looking forward to a future of prosperity and technological advancement. The remaining parts had a much bleaker future to look towards. The end of the war also left many intelligence agents and spies without a job, some got themselves new jobs, others kept doing what they did before, one particular group evolved into a certain intelligence agency that you may be quite familiar with. Though perhaps most relevantly, the war left behind a pair of siblings who would become quite important later in their lives, perhaps even more important than their parents, you may be quite familiar with them too.

Now that I am done rudely interrupting my own storytelling, I think it's best that you should see the reason I told you all this for yourself.

* * *

Just as the Guard Captain had said, the lockdown was lifted on the next day. It was surprising to Jack that only a handful of people waited at the gates when they opened. Perhaps the others wanted to collect the compensation that was promised to them for the forced extension of their stay. Jack didn't care for it, he just wanted to get as far away from that city as quickly as he could, however he would have to meet up with Alice first. Of course he could have just logged out, but he preferred to do that in the relative safety of the quarry.

It was early in the morning when Jack left Rockhaven, the guards that had been posted at the gates nodded him goodbye, perhaps Bedrock had told them about him, though it was most likely just a gesture of politeness.

Jack had arranged his meeting with Alice in a nearby forest, in fact it was the same forest he had come through when he was travelling with Nathaniel. All he had to do was follow the road.

While walking Jack thought about his past with Alice, partially out of nostalgia but mostly to push back the mind-numbing questions that got harder to ignore by the minute.

Alice had an uncanny talent for getting people to say things they shouldn't say, which was also how they met. At some point early in Jack's higher education, she had tried to use this talent on Jack, it would have worked too had Jack not caught on. This chance meeting soon developed into a profitable business relation, Alice would first find out juicy things about people, then Jack would use his, then-modest but rapidly improving, hacking skills to follow up on those things.

Working with Alice wasn't always easy, many times Jack had to discard the information she had gotten him. What was an easy target in Alice's eyes, was often something Jack wanted to stay away from for various reasons. The reasons reached from a high probability of being found out up to moral standards. When Jack didn't want a piece of information, Alice simply sold it to someone else, allowing her to at least profit in some manner.

This went on for several years without incidents, in no small part due to Jack's caution. However, one fateful day Alice returned from her nightly information hunt with a grin more devious than anything Jack had seen before. Back then he had suspected that whatever she had dug up was bigger than anything they had done before.

When he questioned Alice about her discovery, she told him that a drunken woman in a bar had told her about a particular research project that she had been a part of. Despite his reservations, this brain-computer-interface Alice told him about had been too intriguing to pass up on. Jack also silently admitted to himself that his morals had eroded quite a bit during the time he had worked with Alice.

Once Jack got to work on digging into this lead, he discovered that the research team had been successful, against all odds. He had also found and joined their server, even if that meant agreeing to their terms. After he had logged in for the first time he immediately realized that this was too big for him alone. He found help in the form of Q, who apparently had an a bit more personal connection to the matter.

The rest was history, history that ended up with Jack sitting on a fallen log in the middle of a forest, trying not to think about what he saw until he was out of the server. This was made significantly easier by a small meteorite impacting a few steps ahead of him. Of course this was not actually a meteorite but could have been mistaken for one, in reality it was Alice.

In contrast to Jack, Alice looked quite different on the server compared to the real world. The one constant between the real world and the server was Alice's face, on first glance it was quite ordinary but the longer you looked at her the harder it got to say anything but the truth. In the real world this was her only extraordinary feature, which suited her well, being easily recognized was a hindrance in her line of work. The server was a different story, here her face was framed by hair so unnaturally red that it could have been mistaken for flames when in motion. Jack found this to be quite fitting, it was a good reflection of her personality. Alice was currently wearing a full outfit of black leather, a bit too on-the-nose for Jack but again, it was quite fitting for Alice.

Alice asked: "Did you get him?"

Jack sighed. This wouldn't be fun to explain. "No, if I had gotten him, I'd be dead, and I mean real life dead."

"And what exactly does that mean?" Alice asked.

Jack said: "To put it simply, that enforcer Fire shouted about in the arena, she exists and she can actually kill people who have a direct connection. Without a client protecting me I just get my mind eaten if I try anything."

Alice thought for a moment. "Leave the trying to me then. Also, are you sure that she can kill you?"

Jack stood up from the log. "I've seen a pretty impressive demonstration and I'd rather not take the chance. I like being alive, thank you."

Alice lightly punched his shoulder. "Someone's irritated."

Jack said: "I've seen some things that will take a while to forget, I'll tell you once we're out of here. Believe me, I would like nothing more than to tell you everything right now but I need to be sure that I'm not being listened to."

Alice seemed to ignore his plight, instead she asked: "Where will they go next? I'd like to say a few words to that enforcer of theirs."

Jack knew better than to try to stop Alice. "They'll come by here in a while most likely. From what Fire said they're quite battered, at least him and the slaves he escaped with."

Alice asked: "They're with him too?"

"It seems like it." Jack said.

"Even better."

Jack was tempted to shake his head, but didn't. If Alice knew what he knew she wouldn't be so eager to face them. This Shadow seemed immensely powerful, exactly how powerful was to be seen. However, Alice was also quite a force to be reckoned with.

* * *

Jack and Alice spent the following hours sitting on the fallen tree, eating what remained of Jack's rations, namely some dried fruit that had tolerated the cold remarkably well. Many different travelers passed in both directions, the ones they were looking for were not among them.

Shortly before nightfall they saw a light through the trees, its pure white color indicated that it was of magical nature. It was remarkable how quickly Jack had gotten used to the existence of magic on the server. They slowly crept up to the road to see if their waiting had paid off. A group of six was walking along the road, it was them.

Fire was walking ahead of the group, his movements looked quite sluggish, indicating that he was still recovering from his injuries, he was carrying an odd, but impressive looking axe. Right behind Fire were the four people he had escaped with, their names eluded Jack in the moment. The woman wearing robes seemed to have similar problems to Fire. Two men wearing black armor carried a third, who seemed to be unable to walk on his own. At the tail end was Shadow, it seemed like she was on her way to reverting back to her normal appearance but wasn't quite there yet, especially the shadows she cast didn't match her form at all.

Alice whispered: "Let's follow them, I don't think they'll go far like that."

Jack nodded, albeit hesitantly. They waited a few minutes until they went back on the road, always taking care to stay just far enough to still be able to see the light.

Alice was right, not long after they had started following them, the group went off the road, seemingly looking for a place to spend the night. Jack and Alice lurked in the shadows until they could be sure that all of them were sleeping.

Alice said: "Really? She's the enforcer? She looks a bit weird but, seriously? I was expecting someone bigger, she's tiny."

Jack suppressed all counterarguments, they were on the server, Alice had a client, he did not. Nothing he could say would dissuade her from attacking. At least she was safe from dying for real, that was if Fire had told the truth. Then again, if Shadow could kill them either way, why were they still alive? Jack decided that in this matter Fire's word could be trusted.

When Jack looked back to Alice, she was already holding a freshly spawned diamond sword. She said: "You stay back a bit, the kill aura doesn't discriminate."

Alice went ahead through the trees, Jack decided that three meters were an appropriate distance and followed soon after.

The group had set up camp in a small clearing, they were lying on a circle of mats around the now-dimmed light source. Something moved in the corner of Jack's vision, although it only seemed to be a shadow cast by the light source. Alice was meanwhile walking over to the sleeping Shadow, sword raised above, ready to strike.

Alice's sword moved downwards quickly, then stopped shortly before making contact with Shadow's neck. Before Jack could wonder why she had stopped, he felt something coiling around his wrists and ankles, holding them in place. When Jack looked over to Alice, he only got a helpless stare in return. Alice had been firmly bound and lifted off the ground by something he couldn't see. Then Jack looked behind her, to the treeline where he saw something he wished he would not be able to call familiar. On the trees he could see the shadows of writhing tendrils… or hands? What they were was not important, what was important was that they were currently holding the two of them captive, though they were a lot more aggressive when it came to restraining Alice, they even seemed to be holding her mouth shut.

He then heard something that only vaguely resembled the voice of a woman, it seemed to come from everywhere at once but at the same time sounded uncomfortably close.

It said: "Nobody hurts her."

There was more movement in the corner of Jack's vision, this time on the other side. His eyes darted over and saw how Shadow slowly rose up from the ground.

Jack asked: "What did you do to us?"

Shadow seemed to take her time with her answer, first giving a good look to the struggling Alice. "I didn't do anything." Shadow said with a smile. "I assume that this is the infamous Alice? It must be hard, always keeping her from doing something that she might regret, right Jack?"

Jack refused to answer, anything he said might make the situation even worse.

Shadow continued: "You see, my shadow is quite protective of me. She doesn't like it when people sneak up to me at night to murder me in my sleep. Consider yourself lucky that she didn't kill you outright. I'll be doing that myself this time."

Jack's eyes went wide. "Wait! No, no, no, no!"

"Not you, you haven't actually done anything." Shadow said, then looked over to Alice, whose struggling had gone from angry to panicked. "She on the other hand…"

Before Jack knew what was happening, several dark crystalline spikes erupted from the ground below Alice, impaling her all over. In a strange moment of distanced clarity Jack wondered where all the blood was. Even after the shadows let go of Alice's dead body, not a single drop of blood was spilled. Jack remained where he was, alive but still restrained.

Shadow turned to him. "Now that she's done with, there are a couple of things that you might want to know."

Around Jack the others slowly woke up from their sleep, unsurprising with the commotion they had caused.

The shortest of the armored men asked: "Who's that and why is he standing like that?"

Fire answered him: "Ambigious, that's Jack, one of the hackers sent here to track me down. That over there was his partner Alice who was supposed to pick him up from here but decided to attack us instead."

Jack didn't even question how Fire knew this, though it probably wasn't too hard to put together for someone like him, even without exact knowledge of his mission.

Fire said: "I mentioned that I have some things to tell you, this is the perfect opportunity to do so. Not only do I owe my friends an explanation but I also think it's time to let Q know who he's really dealing with."

The robed woman said: "So, maybe start with how you didn't die from that poison."

Shadow said: "Originally our plans for Rockhaven really were to get the Axe as quickly as possible, however that changed when you told me about the interference leaking from the eye. Usually we could have ignored the issue but since Carol had already linked her mind to the eye, she had turned into a ticking time bomb."

Fire took over for Shadow. "What further complicated the issue was that we finally tracked down the leader of that conspiracy and found out that he was going to make a move soon. Shadow infiltrated his order by posing as a traitor to the Eye-and-Claws. As for how I got myself poisoned there is a simple explanation, I didn't."

Another armored man said: "That's what my experiments said too, Shineroot essence can't harm Mencur-Besh."

"Exactly," Fire nodded. "That is why I had a capsule with deathsleep poison in my mouth, which I used to fake my death."

The man apparently called Ambigious said: "Hold on a minute, this is reaching levels of complexity that shouldn't be legal. Why exactly did you need to do that?"

Shadow spoke this time: "Of course we could have just easily killed the leader of the conspiracy or even Carol if she became problematic but think of what that would have done to our negotiations for the Axe. The murder of a high-ranking mage and a tower keeper within that short timeframe and the resulting investigations would have delayed us by weeks. So we thought that it was best to create a controlled chaos that we could quickly resolve."

The last armored man was still lying on his back, he said: "Well, you didn't actually resolve things, we did that."

Shadow said: "Which was the plan all along, admittedly a plan hatched in only a few hours of time. You did an admirable job with your investigation, I didn't even have to nudge you along once. The only hint we gave you was the location Unchosen received when he came near the eye, we had a Mencur-Besh stationed nearby to send it at the correct time."

The man who seemed to be called Unchosen said: "It did seem a bit too convenient when TehLulz returned and told us what he had found there."

Fire said: "Sadly our plan was a failure in the end, Carol making contact with the eye was what we hoped to avoid, unfortunately Shadow was busy executing the conspiracy leader at that exact time. On the bright side, nothing of value was lost, Carol's mind must have gotten warped fairly quickly so her connection only caused minimal interference."

Jack decided to speak up. "That's nice to hear but so far none of that would interest Q in the slightest."

Shadow said snidely: "Excuse us for addressing the important people first."

A snicker could be heard around the clearing, though it didn't seem to be coming from any of the people around the light source. Was that the thing Shadow had mentioned earlier, her own shadow?

Fire turned to Jack and said: "You are still correct, the parts that would interest you are yet to follow. First of all, I allowed myself to be captured."

"What?" Jack said, to his own surprise in unison with Shadow.

Fire explained: "In order to construct the Ban Hammer I need the help of other players. NPCs wouldn't work since they ultimately do not have a free enough will to reliably help me. Luckily your slave mine provided me with exactly what I needed: A large amount of people that were guaranteed to be players with plenty of motivation to go against you. It was easy to 'accidentally' stumble into your territory and get captured."

Jack expected Shadow to be angry but she just sounded confused. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Fire said: "Mainly because you would have tried to stop me. I know how much you want to protect me but that was a risk I needed to take. I must say, so far we have been quite lucky with our risks."

Shadow nodded. "I understand. It isn't easy, but I understand. Thank you Peter."

Unchosen said: "Wait a minute. Peter is your real name, right Fire?"

Fire said: "Yes."

Unchosen continued: "While we are talking about crazy coincidences and astronomically low odds, you wouldn't by any chance be connected to a bus accident of some kind, right?"

Fire looked genuinely surprised, something Jack had never thought he would see. Fire asked: "How would you know that?"

Unchosen said: "I read about it in a newspaper and a few months later I decided to do some research into what you did now, only to find a grand total of nothing past the date that newspaper was published. I even kept the article, they had your name in there and it hadn't been chanced. I wasn't able to find out anything more but it was so weird that it kind of stuck with me. I've also asked this question to every Peter I ever came across."

Fire said: "That was probably because that was also the day where I dropped that identity, or rather the day where I found out who I actually was."

"You'll have to explain that a bit more." Ambigious said, Jack couldn't help but agree.

Fire explained: "Up until that day we had grown up under a different last name. We weren't raised by my parents but by my uncle, I had never questioned it but that day he told me the entire story. First I found out that my last name wasn't Miller like I had thought, it was Graves."

Unchosen sharply inhaled but said nothing. A distant bell rung in Jack's mind, he had come across that name in some classified documents in a server he had hacked once.

He asked: "Not Graves like those people from the war, right?

Fire said: "No, Graves exactly like those people from the war. Aaron and Lilith Graves were my parents."

Unchosen turned to the others, who seemed quite confused. He asked: "They don't teach you about them in school, do they? Or about the war in general?"

Ambigious and the robed woman shook their heads.

Unchosen said: "Figures. I have the questionable pleasure of remembering them. I had just finished my chemistry studies when the war started. Got drafted as a medic, I still remember the things those two demons invented. Luckily I was on their side so I only had to treat the occasional collateral damage but still… Couldn't bring myself to not pursue medicine after that."

Shadow said: "Hey, most demons are alright, our parents were not."

Unchosen said: "I know you said that you two are siblings but in retrospect that doesn't make sense. The Graves family only ever had one child and that's Fire."

Shadow explained: "Almost correct. I was born during the war so they never had a birth certificate or anything else for me. I officially never existed. It also wasn't helped by the fact that for the first decades of my life I suffered from a psychological condition that caused me to experience irrational fear of anyone but my brother."

Ambigious asked: "So, that makes you Shadow Graves? That's quite a name."

Shadow said: "No, I'm still just Shadow. No papers, no last name and I'm not going out of my way to adopt the name of parents I never properly got to know."

Fire continued his explanation: "Finding out about my heritage was… interesting, if anything it distracted me from my recent loss. My uncle also told me that the vast financial imperium left by my parents would also fall to me once I was ready. Back then I didn't feel ready in the slightest, so instead I went headfirst into higher education."

Shadow said: "They hadn't called his class the best in the country for nothing. He breezed through whatever the universities could throw at him."

Fire nodded. "Eventually a professor I had worked with contacted me again, claiming he had heard of an interesting project involving a brain-computer-interface that was running low on funding. I was immediately intrigued, I approached them and became their financial supporter. My hope was to finally find some kind of cure for Shadow, we had tried everything there was and if anything it had made matters worse."

Jack said: "Huh, so that's how you came in contact with them. Our job would be a lot easier if that hadn't happened."

Fire said: "In a way, yes. You and Alice would still be doing your small-scale stuff and living quite comfortably off it. I was what helped the scientists achieve their breakthrough, well technically it was my parents. One day during my studies I decided to go through their extensive collection of weapon and combat agent designs. There were a lot of those, if designing weapons was their best skill, documenting their research was their second best. When I read the scientists' own papers, some passages seemed oddly familiar. I went back to compare with my parents' notes. It seemed that those scientists had come close to discovering a phenomenon that my parents had discovered, only my parents had used it to design the weapon that won the war."

Unchosen grumbled. "Fairy Dust."

Fire said: "Its actual designation is MA-021-X, my parents' notes on the underlying phenomenon were quite extensive but some of it sounded rather crazy. I decided to give the scientists a carefully redacted copy of the notes, they were able to fill in the gaps in their own knowledge and designed a working interface using the phenomenon."

Jack asked: "That's all well and good but how does this software actually work? What's the phenomenon?"

Shadow replied, smiling: "Magic."

This alleged answer left Jack with yet more questions.

Fire said: "What my parents discovered was actually quite explicable through the laws of physics, it's just that the laws needed to explain it haven't been discovered by anyone other than our parents, sadly they didn't write down any proof of them, only their effects."

Jack asked: "So you're telling me they used magic to win the war? I saw the name of their combat agent when I did some… research but I never found out what it did."

Unchosen said: "That's because it doesn't do one thing. They just dropped warheads filled with the stuff onto enemy territory. At first it doesn't do anything but after repeated bombardments people in the area start dying. Some die of heart failure, others die of internal hemorrhage, others die from suddenly brittle bones. That's the early stages. Once the land becomes saturated with Fairy Dust the really weird things start happening, I mostly heard tales, the only time I saw it for myself was when I performed an autopsy on a dead soldier. He had hundreds of flowers growing everywhere inside of him, don't ask me how the seeds got there."

That did sound like magic. Jack asked: "So, how does this Fairy Dust do this?"

This time Shadow was the one to explain. "Up until recently we didn't understand it either but we had a… in order to not open up another warehouse of cans of worms, let's call it accidental expansion of horizons and leave it at that. In short, we found out how it worked. So, in parallel to our world there is a plane where additional laws of physics are in play, the energy contained within is generally directionless. If this energy comes into contact with a mind it can be guided."

The robed woman said: "That sounds like the magic we have here, that other plane sounds like how you described Void magic to me."

Fire said: "Because it is Void magic. Fairy Dust temporarily weakens the barrier between our world and that other plane, allowing the Void magic to seep out, it is then given direction by the first mind it comes in contact with. Sadly the amount of magic released is too small to be controlled consciously so it follows whatever the subconscious is concerned with at the moment. The magic then goes on to alter reality in that area, which frequently causes chaotic, and usually lethal results. Once an area is exposed to more Fairy Dust, more magic is released and more complex things are allowed to happen, like those flowers."

Jack asked: "Okay, now that that's cleared up, why are the people logging into the server not living flowerbeds?"

Fire said: "The software works differently, or at least it does now, in the beginning it was quite similar, only that the phenomenon wasn't caused by a combat agent but by a computer. What it does now is create a punctual tear in the veil that separates us from the other plane, allowing a direct connection to the brain without any magic spilling through. From there on the scientists were able to build up any functionality they wanted. The reason the magic obeys their code is because that's what they wanted it to do when they first established their connection."

Jack said: "That's actually surprisingly logical."

Jack's arms and legs were slowly going numb from being constricted by the living shadow, he sure hoped that this conversation would be done with soon. It had helped immensely with the questions he had after the events in Rockhaven but now a new feeling crept up: The oldest fear known to mankind, the fear of the unknown.

Jack's internal pleas seemed to go unanswered for now, Fire began speaking again: "The reason I originally contacted the scientists was to help Shadow, which I succeeded in. I only recently found out what exactly Shadow's condition had been."

Shadow said: "Before they deployed MA-021-X, Fairy Dust, our parents had earlier versions of their combat agent. The difference was that while MA-021-X quickly decayed and just as quickly weakened the veil, an earlier version called MA-014-X was different. That version didn't decay as quickly, in turn the weakening was also slower. Our parents were exposed to MA-014-X without their knowledge, it turns out that not only had the long-term effects killed them, they had also affected both Fire and me. We can't be sure but Fire's theory is that from birth on, my mind was sort of half-stuck in the other plane. I don't have many coherent memories of anything except my interactions with Fire from that time so I can only assume that everything but him must have looked frightening to me, he must have been the exception because he was affected too. So far, we haven't found out what the effects on him were but they don't seem to be detrimental."

Fire said: "Through the Ascension Project I was able to fully transfer Shadow's mind over to the other plane. In hindsight it should have been obvious that the result wouldn't be exactly human anymore. However, I know that it made her situation much better, which is enough for me."

Jack finally decided to ask: "Are you done? I don't think my limbs will tolerate this for much longer."

Shadow said: "Almost. There is just one last thing I would like to show you. You see, we didn't know about the whole separate magic plane thing until recently, we only knew about its effects. I would like to show you what opened our eyes to the bigger picture."

Jack didn't like those words. He didn't like those words one bit. They were too ominous for his taste and yet he was scared to find out their meaning. As he saw Shadow slowly walking towards him it dawned on him that he wouldn't have a choice in the matter.

Shadow extended her right hand and firmly gripped Jack's left hand. Then it happened… or at least that's when Jack expected something to happen. He turned his head towards Shadow to ask what exactly was going on. When his head started moving was when it actually happened. He was suddenly in a black void, maybe black wasn't the right term for it, black implied that there at least was something there to perceive at all, there was only nothingness around him.

He felt how Shadow leaned towards him, which at least was a sensation he recognized. She was uncomfortably close to his ear when she whispered: "Don't let go of my hand, you don't want to be stuck here."

He asked: "Where exactly is 'here'?"

Shadow said: "Outside of the world. I'm impressed by how quickly you recovered. Then again, I've never taken anyone out here before, at least nobody that I wanted to take back again."

Slowly but surely Jack's perception adapted to whatever it was he was seeing. Shapes like bubbles began appearing in his field of view, their colors almost blinding against the nothingness around them. A light headache began to plague Jack. The shapes gradually got sharper, more defined, the headache grew alongside. One of them looked like the forest he had just been in, in fact he could see the others looking at him through the bubble. The other bubbles had different scenes in them, one showed a cliff, in another he saw what looked to be a stained glass window. He again tried moving his head, the world was nothing again. As he waited again, different bubbles began forming, each containing a different scene.

"What are those bubbles?" Jack asked, half-tempted to turn towards Shadow but decided against it since every change of perspective greatly increased the pain in his skull.

Shadow said: "Bubbles? Oh, right. Feeding higher-dimensional information to a brain designed for three dimensions causes issues. The bubbles you see are worlds, or rather glimpses of worlds."

"Worlds?" Jack at least tried to be confused but his brain was too busy processing the otherworldly sensations.

"We are not alone. We may be alone in our universe but there are plenty of others out there that are definitely populated." Shadow paused. "It was quite a shock for Fire too, though he had more immediate concerns when he found out. You may panic now."

Jack indeed panicked but managed to do so while holding still. This was all a couple of magnitudes of sizes too big for him. The panic subsided as quickly as it had come, it was replaced by contemplation. How much of this should he tell Q, or Alice? How much of it would they believe? Could he even continue doing this? It wasn't too late to quit, right? All he had to do was convince Q to release control of the server, then he could just go back to his ordinary life that didn't have magic or other worlds. Well, it technically did but they wouldn't concern him. Could he even go back now that he knew? If he could he'd have to be very quiet about it if he didn't want to end up in a mental institution.

Jack's flow of thoughts was interrupted by a pull on his arm, Shadow was moving him somewhere. Before he had the chance to close his eyes the movement was over. His headache had intensified beyond what he thought possible. Directly in front of him was a bubble that seemed very familiar, it showed his respawn bed in the hacker's processing building in the slave mine.

Shadow said: "I think it's best if you don't come back."

After those words he again felt movement, he was thrown towards the bubble with the bed, he also noticed that Shadow had let go of his hand. He looked behind him as he soared towards the ever-growing bubble. Behind him was Shadow, waving to him before disappearing from his view.

The next thing Jack felt was an impact, it was quite a soft impact, which was nice. Jack lifted his head, he was not wherever he had been before, which he very much liked. He was lying face down in his respawn bed, aside from the pounding headache he was fine.

From his right he heard a voice, or rather a volley of profanity, according to the vocabulary it had to be Alice.

Jack sat up and saw Alice lie in the bed next to his. She asked: "She killed you too, didn't she?"

At first Jack didn't answer, after some consideration he decided to lie to Alice: "Yes, yes she did."


	98. Chapter 97

Their apprentices had taken the revelations remarkably well, even when they found out that there were many more worlds out there. Fire supposed that unlike Jack, who had more or less been thrown into cold water, his friends had plenty of time to get used to the supernatural.

Shortly after Shadow returned everyone went back to sleep, they needed to be well rested for their journey. The fastest way back to the base was the underground railway, this time they could take the direct route without a detour to Drandin. Taking the train would also mean that they had a few days of walking ahead of them, there was no station close to Rockhaven. While that was inconvenient, it was deliberate. It certainly helped hide the existence of the railway from the public, there were just too many people travelling near Rockhaven to build the station any closer.

It didn't take long for the others to fall asleep, Fire on the other hand was still awake, if a bit lethargic from the after effects of the silver.

Shadow asked him quietly: "Do you think that was enough?"

Fire nodded. "I think so. Maybe we'll finally find out Q's true intentions, so far he kept them well-hidden but if Jack reports even a small fraction of what he saw and heard, Q might reveal them to him. The only question that remains is what Jack will do with that information."

Shadow said: "I suppose that is left to be seen."

With that their conversation was over. Fire lay back down and tried to fall asleep. Shadow would probably stay awake to make sure nobody else disturbed them. After all, sleep was optional for her.

* * *

They were woken up by the sound of propellers and shouting. Fire opened his eyes and was met with a familiar view. Above them floated the airship they had come to Rockhaven with, only now it looked a little different. Next to its big central balloon it had four additional spherical ones that were attached to the central balloon and the cabin with firesteel struts. The propulsion unit had also been upgraded, now sporting two propellers instead of one. The space between the cabin and the central balloon had been filled out as well, Fire couldn't see what exactly was in there but logically it had to be the redstone gyroscope and the overflow capacitors that he and Brad had talked about during the storm.

Brad was naturally also the one piloting the ship, he shouted: "Hey! Get up! I'll give you a ride. I heard about the delay so I thought I should help you out."

With those words he threw a rope ladder down to the ground, the clearing was too small to land the airship.

Once everyone was reasonably awake, they climbed up one after the other, the only exception being TehLulz, who had to be levitated into the cabin by Shadow. Once up, Fire noticed that Brad was not alone, on the second seat in the pilot's cabin sat a woman with short, red hair. Judging by the green and brown colors and the style of her light clothes, Fire assumed that this was the circuit maker from Treetop that Brad had mentioned.

Fire went to the front to greet her. When Fire shook her hand he felt that she was Eye-and-Claws, as expected. She held the highest ranking mark and, according to the tree of the hierarchy that now unfolded in front of Fire's mental eye, she was one of Drandin's liaisons in Treetop.

Fire said: "You must be Laura Dustsmith, we haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet. I'm Fire."

The Dustsmith family had been one of the earliest allies of the Mencur-Besh, predating even the founding of Drandin. Laura was the youngest in her line of redstone engineers.

Laura replied: "Likewise. My father told me quite a bit about the outlandish circuits you commissioned. I'm curious, what was the one with the energy crystals for?"

Fire said: "Right, that one. I have a first-era food machine in my base that I'm quite fond of. The main control circuit finally gave out after thousands of years so I had your father build me a replacement."

Brad returned to his seat and pointed to the console, which had gained a considerable amount of controls. He said: "Can you believe that she built and wired all of this in two days? I don't want to discredit the people we have back in the workshop but honestly, they should take notes."

Laura blushed. "Honey, you…"

Shadow interrupted her: "Did I hear 'honey'? So you two finally got together!" She turned to Brad: "How'd you ask her?"

Now it was Brad's turn to get flustered. "Well, first of all I avoided everything written in the books."

Ambigious had also stood up, he asked: "Books?"

Brad said: "You know, Rose Ebonsnow's books."

Ambigious asked: "And who is Rose Ebonsnow?"

Shadow said with a grin: "That's the pseudonym I use to publish sappy and wildly unrealistic romance novels. I'm not one to understand love, but I do understand what people want to read about it, fortunately those two are almost entirely different things."

Fire said: "Her books managed to top my alchemy journals in revenue within the first year."

Fire clearly noticed that both Brad and Laura were glad that the focus had shifted away from them. Brad had sat back down in his seat and was now flipping through what looked to be a manual for the new controls.

He said: "Alright, everyone sit down, we're taking off."

After everyone had gone back to their seats, Brad took the airship straight up. Then, once they were at cruising altitude he engaged the propellers and they started moving forward at a rapid pace.

Fire was sitting close to the pilot's cabin since he suspected that Brad wanted to talk to him, which was indeed the case.

Brad said: "So, as you might be able to see I added some stabilization balloons. They work in tandem with the redstone gyroscope to keep the ship upright and stable. They're mostly autonomous but I can override them if I need to."

Fire said: "I see you also upgraded the propulsion system."

Brad said: "Sure did, partially because the increased mass and drag required it but also because of a new trick the ship has up its sleeves. The overflow capacitors are primarily here to protect from any sort of power surge, but I can also charge them while not moving and then use the stored power to fully use the expanded engine capacity. Quite handy if you need to go places quickly."

To demonstrate, Brad pushed up a lever, as he did the noise from the propellers got louder and they noticeably sped up.

Fire asked: "How much time of higher speed do you get out of a full charge?"

Laura replied: "According to calculations roughly a day, but how long it actually is still needs to be tested. We also theorized that the capacitors could be used to fuel some sort of weapon system."

Brad said: "The active component of that system would be a blaze core probably, especially now that we have your new activation ritual for extra safety and firepower."

freeZe said: "Careful, those things can get out of hand quickly, I would know."

"Weapon systems aren't priority now anyways. We're just speculating, we'll start thinking about those once we have much larger airships." Brad said.

Their conversation seemed to be over, Fire shifted his attention back to his friends and his sister, who apparently were already engaged in a card game. If everything went according to plan, and this time there was only one plan, they would arrive at the base in the evening at best, around midnight at worst.

Once they arrived they'd have to spend some time recovering, Fire would be fine within a few days, how freeZe and especially TehLulz would fare was a different story. Their next destination was the dragon and they needed to be even better prepared than for their previous journey.


	99. Chapter 98

The flight was unlike their first in the sense that they didn't run into a storm, the only time they changed their altitude at all was when flying over mountains or whenever they came near a settlement, airships were still in their early stages and the fewer people knew about them the better.

In the meantime they had spent their time with various card games or board games that Shadow projected. As the journey went on they gradually transitioned to just looking down through the glass floor and observing the landscape below, they occasionally ate and drank from the on-board storage.

In the late afternoon Fire spoke up: "TehLulz, freeZe, how are you holding up?"

freeZe spoke first: "Aside from the pain when breathing, just fine. I'm already better than I was in Rockhaven, not much though, just a little."

TehLulz was sitting in his seat with his eyes closed, they had to strap him into it so that he wouldn't fall over. He slowly said: "As long as I don't open my eyes it's fine. Once I do everything starts spinning. Still can't muster any strength in my limbs." He then added: "About how much longer will this flight go?"

Fire looked over to the pilot's cabin, Brad caught his gaze. He stood up and left the cabin, Laura would take over the airship's controls in the meantime. Brad said: "Just two or three more hours, then we should be at the edge of the jungle. From there on you'll have to give me directions, I don't know the exact coordinates of your base." Brad then asked: "What's your next destination by the way?"

Fire said: "The stronghold under the Whitegravel Mountains, it's a bit more than a week of riding from my base, then we'll have to convince the local authorities to let us use the tunnel to get to it."

Brad scratched his beard. "We don't have a liaison over there, they don't like us drandinians much since we are in direct competition to their own mining operation."

Shadow said: "That shouldn't be a problem, for all they know we're yet another group of foolish adventurers who want to try to kill the dragon. They don't really interact with the world outside of trading, I don't think they even know who I am. They'll probably ask for a hefty fee but that'll be that."

Fire nodded. "Adventurers are their second biggest source of income."

Brad said: "What I'm getting from this is that it would probably be a bad move to roll up to their front door in an obviously drandinian airship."

Fire said: "Exactly. Though according to some very interesting things we recently learned, time isn't as big of an issue anymore."

Brad seemed to guess what Fire meant, he asked: "You really think they disengaged the safety mechanisms?"

Shadow said: "Absolutely positive. Otherwise the incident at the eye in Rockhaven wouldn't have happened."

As one of the earliest members of the server Brad knew a great deal about what the scientists did and thus he also understood the implications.

He asked: "When do you think they did it?"

Fire shrugged. "That's hard to say, all we have as a frame of reference is Rockhaven. It could have happened at any point while I was in the quarry, all that I know is that I'm still alive and will remain that way for a while, even if they only disengaged them a short time before we came to Rockhaven."

Brad said: "I suppose that's good."

Fire said: "It may lead to some problems later down the line but we can't predict those, for now it allows us to continue with our mission."

Brad didn't answer, he just nodded and returned to his seat in the cabin.

* * *

Two and a half hours later the lush green trees of the jungle were below them. Brad had stopped the engines and now took directions from Fire, a minute later he had the airship pointed the right way using the gyroscope. Brad then pushed the thrust lever forwards and brought the airship back up to speed. Another half hour later they had reached their destination, which looked just like any other patch of jungle. Of course, this specific patch of jungle was just an ethereal projection above the entrance to the base.

Shadow said: "We drop here."

Brad asked: "Should I bring us down a bit?"

Shadow shook her head: "No, I can guide the fall well enough."

Brad said: "Alright."

Fire had meanwhile opened the door of the passenger cabin, a steady wind was blowing outside but the airship stayed firmly in place.

The others got out of their seats one by one and lined up at the door, with the exception of TehLulz who was magically lifted out of his seat by Shadow.

Fire said: "Thank you for taking us here Brad, I really appreciate it."

Brad replied: "Eh, don't mention it. I needed to test the upgrades to the airship anyways and if I can do that while helping some friends out that's even better."

Laura said: "Good luck on you mission."

Without further words Fire jumped out of the airship, he fell downwards in a straight line, Shadow's magic keeping him on the right track. Behind him he saw Ambigious, freeZe and Unchosen jump out as well, though with a bit of hesitation. Shadow and TehLulz followed immediately after them.

Fire liked free falling, he liked the wind on his scales and the feeling of weightlessness. This was just like jumping down the stairs of the quarry, only that it lasted longer. The roof of the jungle was rapidly approaching, when Fire reached it he passed right through. Once through the projection he quickly slowed down and gracefully set down on the grass.

Only seconds later the others landed next to him.

"That was fun!" Ambigious shouted.

Unchosen seemed a bit shaky on his legs but hesitantly agreed.

The only one who didn't actually land was TehLulz, he was still floating a meter above the ground.

He asked: "Shadow, why didn't you do that when we left Rockhaven?"

Shadow replied: "I don't feel comfortable casting such spells on people I care about while I am in my unbound form, if I'm not careful I could tear a hole in reality. The scientists' restrictions may not entirely prevent me from using Void magic anymore but they still make it difficult."

Fire had gone ahead to the small wooden hut that was the entrance to their base, the others followed after him. Once again they descended into the depths of the world on the richly decorated elevator. After a few minutes they had reached the entrance hall.

freeZe pointed to a new engraving. "Hey, that's us!"

Shadow said: "I told you the demon would be done by the time we're back."

The engraving showed the six of them walking through the jungle, the four warriors in their armor and the two mages in their robes.

Ambigious said: "I'll have a better look later. Now I need to have a good look at the backs of my eyelids, night everyone."

With those words Ambigious went ahead, without doubt towards the living quarters, freeZe and Unchosen quickly followed.

TehLulz asked: "Shadow, mind levitating me to my bed as well?"

Shadow nodded and TehLulz floated after his friends.

Now alone with Fire, Shadow asked: "When you said that disengaging the security mechanisms would lead to some problems, you had something specific in mind, didn't you?"

Fire nodded. "Yes. Those problems might present themselves if the hackers stop their attack before we get the Ban Hammer."

Shadow asked: "What kind of problems would those be?"

Fire said: "Don't know. We never tested what would happen if the server was allowed to run without a speed limit while so many people are connected."

Shadow pointed ahead and asked: "Should we tell them?"

Fire thought for a moment, then answered: "Not yet, right now they need to recover and prepare for the fight against the dragon. We don't even know what the effects will be, if it becomes relevant at all. They'll be safe with us even if it happens, I know that much."

Shadow said: "True."

Fire said: "However, I'd like to tell someone else about it who very well could be affected by it, I have a promise to uphold. Would you mind conjuring up a communication orb? I'll dial."

"Sure."

Shadow raised her hand and in her palm appeared an iridescent ball of light. Fire took it from her and dialed using the demonic language. The orb then established a connection to the Eye-and-Claws safe house in the cold biome near the Witch's Cauldron.

* * *

It hadn't been an easy talk but Fire had said everything he needed to say. After terminating the connection he too started walking towards the living quarters, he still needed a few days to fully recover from the silver wound.


	100. Chapter 99

A few days had passed since their return to the base. Those days had mostly been spent recovering from the journey, Fire's spent the remaining time monitoring the recovery of freeZe and TehLulz. It seemed that both of them would need a fair bit more time until they were back in fighting shape so he was in no rush with the preparations.

On the sixth day after their return Fire sat at the wooden table in the living quarters, thinking about the details of the assault on the End. His contemplation was interrupted when Unchosen came down the stairs, evidently having woken up not long before.

Unchosen said: "Morning."

Fire returned the greeting, then said: "You seem to have something on your mind."

Unchosen sat down next to Fire. "I know I should be recovering but to be honest, this is as recovered as I'll get. I want to do something that'll help us in what's ahead."

Fire had expected something like this sooner or later, Unchosen and Ambigious had come out of the situation in Rockhaven largely unharmed and it was only natural for restlessness to crop up.

Fire suggested: "How about we go brew some potions? We'll need quite specific ones for what's ahead."

He then got up and started walking towards the exit, Unchosen followed him.

While walking, Unchosen asked: "Specific in what sense?"

Fire said: "We only know very few things about the End, the only source of information are players who have gone to the End before, NPCs wouldn't be able to tell the tale because they usually don't respawn."

At the hub they turned to the corridor of the potion lab. Fire meanwhile continued: "To answer your question, there is one thing that everyone who has been to the End agrees on. The fact that there it doesn't have any air you can breathe."

Unchosen said: "So, it's in space?"

Fire replied: "Probably something like that. We know that the Nether is physically below the Overworld with a layer of void separating the two. It would be logical that the End has a similar position, existing above the Overworld. We don't know if there is another layer of void above the world but we assume that that is not the case since there is no protective layer of bedrock in the sky."

"So if you knew where it was you could just fly there with magic, right?"

Fire nodded. "That would only make sense, however the most reliable way to get there is still the portal."

They arrived in the lab, both of them routinely put on their protective gear.

While putting on his gloves Unchosen said: "So I imagine we'll need a potion that removes the need for air, ideally something that doesn't conflict with bolstering potions."

Fire said: "Exactly. That is also the most difficult part, water breathing potions rely on the oxygen in water, so we can't use them because there obviously isn't any kind of oxygen in a vacuum."

Unchosen said: "I see. So we need to design a potion that contains enough energy for our entire stay."

Fire replied: "Not quite, there is one very important bit of information that Shadow got from a mage that has been to the End before, in fact the only one she could find. That mage said that the magical background field was exceptionally strong in the End, ideally our potion should make use of that to power our bodies. If we can't get that to work we'll go with your idea."

Unchosen said: "Makes sense. One last thing, how would both of those options look conflict wise?"

Fire said: "Draining energy from the environment generally causes less complications, drinking condensed energy on the other hand would probably cause more conflicts since other potions usually don't play nice with charged particles."

"Alright." Unchosen said. "How do we begin?"

Fire replied: "The usual way, by scouring the books for something that does what we want so we don't have to reinvent the wheel."

* * *

They spent hours looking through the potion journals of various alchemists and they did eventually make a find. Naturally it was no perfect fit, so far very little thought had been given to creating a potion suited to surviving a magic-rich vacuum. This particular potion had originally been designed for miners mining very close to bedrock and was intended to offset the life force draining effects of being so close to the void. They would have to modify the potion quite a bit but the overall structure of the effect was promising. Of course they would first have to test the potion in its original form.

A first small batch of potion was brewed quickly, all relevant ingredients were readily available and it required no extraordinary processing steps.

Fire said: "Now it's time to test it."

He walked over to a structure that looked like a large fume hood. With a few gestures he conjured up a translucent blue humanoid projection below the hood. The projection was like the ones he had used to train his apprentices.

He explained: "This setup is similar to the adaptable training room, only that it isn't quite as versatile. It's limited to simulating various environmental conditions, it also serves as a containment field."

Unchosen asked: "That projection acts as our test subject, right?"

Fire said: "Correct. Usually such a setup isn't needed, if you have the ability to respawn you generally have no reason to not resort to self-experimentation, however this allows for quicker iterations. I have also learned the hard way that there are some very specific edge cases that put you in situations that can't be fixed by dying and respawning."

"Got it." Unchosen said. "Mind showing me how it works? I have seen the device before but I just thought it was a regular fume hood."

Fire opened a cupboard below the device, behind it was a fixture holding a large shimmering crystal that had various runes etched into it.

"This is what controls the field." He closed the cupboard and continued: "It's actually quite user friendly, the Eye-and-Claws occasionally fabricate and sell these to wealthy alchemists so it's by no means as unique as the training room."

With a gesture Fire caused an interface to appear. He said: "It's pretty self-explanatory. After we give the projection the potion time within the field is accelerated until the potion effect takes place, then we can run whatever test we want. It also contains a diagnostic system that allows us to see the cause of 'death' should our potion not work."

Fire let Unchosen look at the interface for a bit before administering the potion to the projection. Within a few seconds the potion distributed throughout the projection, visualized as a yellow glow. It seemed to distribute itself quite uniformly, which was what they needed. Fire first increased the ambient magic in the containment field, then decreased the air pressure. The projection's vital organs quickly turned from red to black.

Unchosen said: "That didn't work."

Fire quickly looked through the diagnostic interface. "Technically it did exactly what it promised, it absorbed ambient magic into the body. What it didn't do was use that magic to supply cells with energy, the projection's life force never dropped but its vital functions stopped, as you would expect."

Unchosen theorized: "The potion seems to work well as-is when it comes to absorbing the energy, now we should add another component that gets into the cells and actually does what we want it to do."

Fire nodded. "Agreed. We could probably test the effectiveness of that component on its own. While we're at it we should test it on Mencur-Besh cells as well."

* * *

It was easy to lose track of time when doing alchemy, Fire and Unchosen spent countless hours trying to improve their potion. Creating something workable took them pretty much no time at all, in fact their very first prototype did an alright job of running cells directly using life force. The problem came in when they simulated the effects of physical activity in the projection, while their potion was good enough to keep an idle body alive, it definitely couldn't do it for an active one. The next logical step consisted of making a more aggressive version of the secondary component, which proved harder than expected because it was apparently quite easy to turn it into a cell toxin on accident.

They slowly made progress increasing the efficiency of the conversion and eventually got to a point where even the most intense physical activity used up energy slower than the secondary component could use up life force. That was until the projection's life force ran out entirely and killed it that way. This of course meant that they had to increase the pull of the so-far unmodified primary component. Through the use of rare ingredients like ground-up energy crystals they were able to increase the absorption to a point where it was sufficient.

Their final test went down without a hitch, the projection stayed alive throughout the entire procedure and didn't exhibit any side-effects.

Fire looked at the mountain of notes they had produced during their research and was quite satisfied, both with their work and with his intuition. Back in the quarry he had already seen Unchosen's potential, of course not for alchemy specifically but after those thousands of years his intuition had turned into an almost supernaturally reliable compass when it came to judging people.

Fire said: "Now we'll just need to test a select few potions for conflicts, namely strength and resistance potions. However I think we should leave that for the next day."

Unchosen wearily nodded. They then cleaned up their workplace, put the ingredients and lab ware back to their respective places and stowed their notes away in a folder to be later condensed into a proper potion journal entry. Lastly they took off their protective gear and left the lab.

On the way back they ran into Shadow, however Fire knew his sister well enough to know that she had deliberately waited for them in order to talk to them.

She asked: "How did it go?"

Unchosen said: "Quite well, we came up with a potion that allows your body to run entirely on life force."

Shadow asked: "What's the efficiency quotient?"

Unchosen replied: "Around twenty-five percent. Not enough to be viable in an average environment but with the high ambient energy in the End it'll work perfectly."

Shadow laughed. "You had me worried for a second that it would be close to what my body does. Would have made people question ascension and in turn would have made me spend energy on proving them wrong."

Unchosen asked: "How are the others doing?"

Shadow said: "freeZe is starting to recover, emphasis on starting. Her silver burns still need a bit of time to heal. I ran some magical scans on TehLulz earlier too, sadly he shows no signs of recovery and I can't help him with magic either, that potion was quite something. It does make me regret not helping you out back in Rockhaven."

Fire said: "I'll go talk to him after I've had a bite to eat, maybe I can think of something to help him."

Unchosen said: "I'll come with you."

They walked the rest of the way to the living quarters in silence.


	101. Chapter 100

Another three days had passed. Fire and Unchosen had spent the first one finishing up the potions they would need for the fight. Next to their energy absorption potion they had to come up with a variant of resistance potion that would protect them against the vacuum, which had been straight forward. Other than that they prepared several potions that would enhance them during the fight.

The remaining two days Fire used to come up with a strategy for the fight as well as to spar with Ambigious and Unchosen. Restlessness was really setting in, especially with Ambigious, who tried his best to keep himself busy with improvements and customizations to his set of armor. Fire knew that they'd have to depart soon, not just because of the rising stress but also because he didn't want to push his luck with his own time.

After obtaining the dragon egg they would somehow be told what the rest of the artefacts were, as well as how they should go about combining them to make Ban Hammer.

On the morning of the fourth day, Fire sat down for breakfast with the others. Everyone was there, even TehLulz, though he still didn't have enough strength to eat by himself and had to be fed by one of Shadow's demons.

Fire asked: "So, how are you doing freeZe?"

freeZe replied: "It still hurts when I breathe but I can cast at full strength again."

Shadow nodded. "We did a few quick tests yesterday to see if her magic had recovered. Besides, we won't need to breathe in the End anyways."

Fire said: "That also means that we will not be able to communicate outside of hand signs."

Unchosen asked: "Can't Shadow establish some kind of telepathy?"

Shadow explained: "I could but I think it isn't a good idea. According to what I've been able to gather about the End, the protection the dragon receives from its crystals is increased by several orders of magnitude and the crystals are protected themselves, both from arrows and from spells. In short, I'll have to focus on disabling the crystals before we can harm the dragon, for that I might have to cheat a bit using Void magic."

Unchosen nodded his head in understanding. "I see why telepathy is a bad idea then."

Fire said: "Since we won't be able to harm the dragon until Shadow has destroyed the crystals we'll need to focus on protecting her. Casting that Void magic through her restrictions will require her full concentration so we have to make sure nothing gets through to her."

Ambigious asked: "Isn't that kind of hard, just the four of us against all the endermen? Because I think it's safe to assume that they'll come after us."

Fire answered: "My plan for that was that Shadow summons a large number of demons before we go through the portal, they will support us in the fight. Because of the higher energy density of the End the demons will have a harder time staying manifested in our world so we can't rely on them completely."

Ambigious said: "Yeah, that sounds like a plan."

They finished breakfast and then went their own ways, Fire told them to meet an hour later since he still had to do some things beforehand.

* * *

Fire and Shadow accompanied TehLulz as he was levitated back to his room, there was something they needed to ask him.

TehLulz preempted them by slowly saying: "So, I probably can't come along like this."

Fire said: "Yes, that's what we wanted to talk to you about. We still haven't found a way to cure the aftereffects of the potion except by giving it more time."

TehLulz said: "I've gotten a bit better but not enough."

Shadow assured him: "You've already done a lot for our mission. While we're out there I'll leave you here in the care of some of my demons. They know what they are doing."

TehLulz slowly nodded. "I can live with that. Maybe I'll be able to walk on my own once you're back."

Fire said: "It's decided then. I'll tell the others once we meet up again. Have a good rest."

Fire and Shadow left TehLulz' room, Shadow went to her own, Fire turned in the direction of the library.

* * *

When they gathered again they met in the central hub of the base. Everyone except for TehLulz was there, he was resting in his bed since any excess movement caused him discomfort.

"So, what do you want to show us?" freeZe asked.

Fire said: "So far you have seen the upper part of my base, back when we gave you the tour we only showed you that part because it was immediately important to your training. The lower part contains a lot of the infrastructure of the base, it is for example where all of the farms and gardens are located. What's important now though is that the pasture is also in the lower part."

Ambigious said: "Yeah, you did mention something about horses, so that's where you keep them?"

Fire nodded. "Just follow me."

They went down a corridor that was labelled with a staircase symbol. Fire went down the stairs first, the others followed. They passed by several exits on different levels, each labelled with what it lead to. They passed by the conventional crop farms, then the nether crops, then the alchemy gardens. At the bottom of the staircase was a wooden door. Fire pushed it open.

On the other side of the door a blue sky opened up in front of them, rich green hills extended a long distance out. To the right was a barn, to their left a large pond.

Ambigious said: "Huh, I did not expect something like this."

Shadow explained: "The sky is magical but otherwise the pasture is natural. We set this up by hand, it was quite an early project of ours."

Meanwhile Fire had taken a small, flute-like instrument out of one of his pockets and a series of pleasant tones could be heard across the pasture. Within seconds five shapes appeared from behind various hills, evidently horses. The horses then lined up in front of the group, it was quite evident that one of them was a lot bigger than the others.

freeZe said: "Fire, you really weren't kidding when you said that your horse looked like that. It even has red eyes. How'd you manage that?"

Fire walked up to the massive horse and pat its head. "You see, there is a procedure to turn a human into a Mencur-Besh, it's what I underwent to become one as well. The first phase of this procedure induces most of the changes that aren't radical. It makes you grow, strengthens your bones and muscles and changes your metabolism a bit. It doesn't give you scales, claws or additional hearts, the second phase is what fully transforms you. It turns out that while the second phase only works on humans, the first phase can be applied to any mammal. It's mostly used to create horses like this one that can carry a Mencur-Besh."

Shadow said: "Enough of that, let me introduce them."

She pointed at the enormous horse. "That's Nightmare, as you might remember. She's Fire's mount." The next horse had a pure white color. "This is Daydream, he's mine." Shadow then pointed to the remaining three horses, which were reddish-brown, dark brown and grey respectively. "This is Flower, Rust and Breakfast. They will be your mounts, which one you take is up to you."

Ambigious spoke first: "Don't know, but Breakfast sounds like the one for me."

Shadow laughed. "I expected that."

freeZe said: "I'll take Rust if that's okay with you Unchosen."

Unchosen nodded. "I'm sure they're all more than up for the task. Flower it is then."

Fire played another series of tones on his instrument and the horses slowly went their own ways again.

He said: "Do any of you have any experience with riding?"

Ambigious and freeZe shook their heads. Unchosen said: "Not much, but I went to a ranch a couple of times with my daughters."

Fire again reached into a pocket and pulled out what looked to be three small books. "There are some spots to sit down near the barn, these memory books should get you started on the basics. Once you are done reading, there are saddles in the barn, when you actually start practicing it should come to you quite quickly. In the meantime I'll prepare for our departure, which will be in two days. Shadow will be here if you have any questions."

Unchosen turned towards the barn and started walking. "Alright, see you later then."

Fire watched as his friends went over to the barn to sit down. He then exited the pasture and went back up the stairs. It was now time to prepare their rations for the journey, the ride would take approximately a week if nothing delayed them. The terrain on the way wasn't very challenging, it was mostly flat and after the first day they would have already reached a road that they could follow. In difficulty this was much like the journey to Rockhaven, hopefully without a ghoul incident this time.

What Fire was the most uncertain about was the fight with the dragon and getting the egg back to the base safely. He had no experience or hard data he could use to make any good guesses so he refrained from doing so entirely, it was better to focus on things he could control. One of those things was creating preserved rations, which mostly boiled down to a tried and true, if culinarily controversial, recipe: dried and salted meat.


	102. Chapter 101

The time for departure had finally come after way too many days of waiting. Ambigious was walking in the middle of the group, leading his horse Breakfast through the underbrush of the jungle. Shadow had taken the lead and was clearing away the plants ahead of them using what looked to be Wither magic.

Unchosen and freeZe were walking ahead and behind of Ambigious respectively. Unchosen was leading Flower and freeZe was leading Rust. freeZe had mostly recovered from the wound she had received in Rockhaven, she now only occasionally suffered from shortness of breath.

TehLulz stayed behind in the base just like they had said. Ambigious would have liked to have him along for the ride but he saw that in the state he was in there just was no point.

Fire, Unchosen and Ambigious were wearing their usual firesteel armor, since out in the field there was little reason to wear anything else. Shadow and freeZe had exchanged their mage robes for outfits more fit for riding.

Ambigious had had a look over a map in Fire's base and apparently their path would lead them through quite a variety of climates so he doubted that these outfits were all they had. Then again, Ambigious suspected that whatever Shadow was wearing were just her shapeshifted robes. If they could turn into a dress, why wouldn't they be able to turn into other things?

They took a similar path out of the jungle to the one they had taken when they departed to Rockhaven, presumably because it was the most direct way to more horse-traversable terrain.

According to Fire they had more than enough food and water, apparently he had packed double of what the estimated travel would require. Ambigious definitely had gotten a taste of what the server could throw at them so he was glad to have extra food.

After a bit more walking they exited the jungle and immediately mounted up. Ambigious instinctively knew what to do, a fact that still made him slightly uncomfortable seeing that a couple of days ago he hadn't had any experience with horses whatsoever.

They rode along the biome border between the jungle and the savannah. The environment was quite hot but not unbearable. The horses seemed to manage just fine.

###

They rode for hours, only occasionally stopping to eat and drink. Eventually they arrived at a fork in the biome border. Ahead of them was a taiga biome.

Fire declared: "We ride straight ahead. There should be a road about three hours in. We'll ride for two hours, then set up camp for the night. That should lower our chances of being ambushed."

freeZe said: "Which won't be more than an inconvenience, I'm itching to use my magic again now that it's back in full."

Shadow said: "It may just be an inconvenience but it's enough to disturb your sleep, which will delay us going forward."

Ambigious wasn't used to his sister being so… aggressive. Normally he was the one eager to start a fight. He wasn't a psychologist so instead of trying to understand the reason for the change, he simply decided to keep it in mind.

Before they started riding again freeZe opened the bag she was carrying and put on an additional layer of clothes in light of the colder climate ahead of them. Shadow's clothes just remained as they were, Ambigious supposed that there was no reason for her to change, considering her nature.

Once freeZe was done, they mounted up and rode once again. Luckily for them the taiga ahead of them hadn't seen snowfall in a while. The ground was covered by soft moss and occasional shrubs. There was enough space between the spruce trees to ride in a more-or-less straight line.

If anything, this was one of the most relaxing travels Ambigious had had on the server. During their run from the quarry nothing had ever been relaxing. Their journey to Rockhaven had been largely on foot or in some kind of vehicle and the same was true for the return trip. This journey may not be the most physically relaxing one either, riding on a horse took more than just sitting and letting the horse do its thing. However Ambigious found that having the landscape go by with the wind on his face a far more mentally relaxing experience than any other method of travel so far.

###

After the two hours of riding had passed they once again stopped and dismounted. They quickly set up camp using a series of magically expanding tents and freeZe used her magic to light a campfire.

They sat down to eat, the horses meanwhile roamed around the camp eating some of the moss on the ground. Ambigious took his piece of salted and dried meat and started chewing.

Between bites he asked: "Why didn't you bring any magically preserved food by the way? Not complaining about the meat, it's tough and salty as all hell but it's still good."

Fire replied: "One reason is that we didn't have much of it left and preserving new food takes time, another is that we don't know what the End portal, and the End in general, will do to that preserving magic. It would be unfortunate to have to make the trip back having to forage for food all the time."

"Makes sense."

Unchosen remarked: "This is by far the most conventional adventure I've been on. That is, until we jump into a portal to fight a dragon in space. This'll make a great story to tell my daughters."

freeZe looked up and smiled. "Careful about those death flags Unchosen."

Unchosen shrugged. "I'm not worried about death on principle, at least not in here. As long as respawning is possible I can raise all the death flags I want… I wish I had some photos and a retirement coming up to complete the set."

Fire said: "As long as you're with us, all of that shouldn't be a problem."

Fire then took a map from his inventory and spread it out on the floor. It was the same map, or a copy at least, that Ambigious had seen in Fire's base. It seemed to cover the entire central continent of the server's world.

Fire pointed at a spot. "We're about here so we're making good time. We should be through the taiga in another three days. After that, the plains should take us only two days. The remainder of the time will be taken up by mountains surrounding our destination. Fortunately there is a main road we can ride on, so we won't have to do much navigating. Weaving through those valleys will still take a while though."

Shadow said: "The people from Whitegravel really should invest in tunneling through more of the mountains but I guess they like their relative isolation. Their farming is going well enough to sustain the inhabitants and traders come to them anyways."

Fire added: "I also heard someone make the argument that their town being inaccessible adds to the pull for the adventurers. As much as they may dislike them on an individual level, the adventuring tolls for the stronghold ruins are a good part of their income."

They kept talking for a while before deciding to go to sleep. Riding was quite tiring in the long term and they'd have to do a whole lot more of it in the near future.


End file.
